Rick Stein says he feels good at 75, four years after successful open-heart surgery, and still sounds as if he is moving at full speed. Back as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, the chef says he remains upbeat about his health while spending six months in Australia with his wife, Sas.
Stein said he still feels very optimistic and credits part of that to routine: he tries to swim every day, especially in cold water, and keeps to a healthy diet built around lots of fish. That does not mean he has given up every indulgence. He is still partial to a large bar of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut, he said, a small admission that sits comfortably beside a life built on discipline and long working days.
What brings him back to television is the same energy he says he sees in the contestants. Stein said he loves the friendly competitiveness of the cooks and the excitement around the competition, and he enjoys the efficiency of the crew, many of whom have worked on MasterChef for years. “It’s like meeting old friends,” he said. That ease matters on a show that depends as much on pace and chemistry as it does on food.
The new run also fits into a longer relationship with Australia. Stein first experienced the country at 19 in 1967, arriving by ship at Sydney’s Woolloomooloo as a backpacker, long before he became a household name. His path into food was far from polished. He started out running a mobile disco in Cornwall and said he only realised how much he loved cooking after the nightclub closed when he was 24. From there, the work turned into a career that now spans 11 restaurants across the UK and Australia, repeated television appearances and a new SBS project, Rick Stein’s Australia.
That wider workload gives his health update more weight than a routine celebrity check-in. Four years after heart surgery, he is not talking about slowing down. He says he wants to keep making television, running restaurants, writing books and taking plenty of holidays with Sas. “I love coming here,” he said, adding that he feels privileged to be able to spend time in both the UK and Australia every year.
The tension in Stein’s story is not whether he is back on screen. He clearly is. It is how long he can keep balancing a busy life across two countries after major surgery, without abandoning the work that has defined him for decades. For now, his answer is plain enough: he is feeling good, he is still optimistic, and he is not looking to step off the road any time soon.
