Under the Mackerel Sky: A Memoir
Rick Stein
Imprint: Ebury Press
RRP: $39.99
Review by Dawn Forbes
Review by Dawn Forbes
Most readers who followed Rick Stein’s television series
only know the man who is comfortable in front of the camera, introducing not
only fresh food and ways to cook it, but also historical facts about the area
he is in, the growing methods and production of the food he is demonstrating
and the people who do all the work. That
is what makes his programmes worth watching.
After reading his memoir, I have been introduced a man who
is much more than that. Some of it good and some of it not so good but
everything he has done has been done with energy, daring and commitment.
One of five children (the oldest a half-brother), he grew up
on a farm in Oxfordshire, and spent his summer holidays at the family house in
Cornwall where he and his father enjoyed fishing off the rocks. His mother was an enthusiastic and competent
cook who loved to entertain so both places were often filled with guests and
other family members. They did not seem
to have to worry about money.
His relationship with his bi-polar father was often tense
and difficult and after his suicide, he moved, at eighteen, to Australia for
two years working wherever he could, doing whatever he could.
Early schooling was at boarding schools and the last five
years at Uppingham public school where he was an indifferent scholar. At 22 he
went to Oxford and studied literature.
Music has also been an important part of his life and his recall of
particular songs at particular times of his life are a feature of this
book. He became editor of the
undergraduate newspaper, and started a mobile disco which he designed and made
himself, and called The Purple Tiger. This eventually led him to open a
nightclub in Padstow.
He was a long time coming to the Rick Stein we now
know. He describes the difficulties of
the early businesses but he always managed to salvage them, to learn something
from each one and to move quickly onto the next until he can now boast three
restaurants in Padstow, two fish and chip shops, one in Padstow and one in
Falmouth, and the old pub his family frequented in his younger days, the
Cornish Arms in St Merryn.
The reviewer:
Dawn Forbes is an Auckland-based enthusiastic reader, chef and gardener, and a regular reviewer on Beattie's Book Blog
Makes me really want to read it.
ReplyDeleteHow interesting about the music !
Obviously a man with drive and creativity