Rick Stein - not just a smiley Cornish face

You can sneer, if you like, at chefs selling out to commercial considerations but it’s really, really hard to find anything but good to say about what Stein has pulled off here. Great food, talented people, happy punters and a glorious halo effect that’s spreading the good.

That's the verdict of the reviewer in today's Financial Times on what Rick Stein has done for Cornwall's Padstow. The TV chef himself might not often appear in the town these days but his assortment of "restaurants, chip shops, hotel, hip B&B rooms, bakery, deli and kitchenware and souvenir emporium" makes an otherwise ordinary coastal town "the model 'foodie destination' and envy of hundreds of other aspiring small towns."
The story is a refreshing change from the normal knocking of the tall poppies in restaurant reviews. It not only praised the quality of the seafood in his own establishment but acknowledged how his presence in Padstow had allowed other gifted chefs to thrive on the tourist trade he drives.
The FT's words encourage me to visit Rick Stein's Australian presence at Mollymook on the south coast of New South Wales.

Rick Stein at his Mollymook restaurant