TV chef Rick Stein reveals he eats with chopsticks and names his two vices as 76-year-old answers our health quiz
Rick Stein said he eats with chopsticks ‘because you put smaller pieces in your mouth and therefore tend to eat less’
CAN YOU RUN UP STAIRS?
About. Last year I had heart surgery to replace a faulty valve, which rejuvenated me. I have been an avid swimmer for years. I try to swim every day. And I walk a lot with my wife Sas.
EVER DIET?
I’m always on a diet because I love eating so much, so I need periods where I cut back. I retreat to my cottage in Padstow and spend a lot of time cooking small meals.
I also eat with chopsticks, because you put smaller pieces in your mouth and therefore tend to eat less.
On a good day I weigh about 98 kg (just over 15; he is 1.80 meters). But right now, after eating lunch and dinner every day during my holiday in Greece, I weigh 102 kg (about 16 lbs).
ANY VICES?
Chocolate – that’s why I only buy small bars of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut or regular milk chocolate. I can’t just break off a few squares; I have to walk through an entire bar. I have been known to do this five times a day! My other vice is beer, and lots of it, although I opt for session ales – usually less than 4 percent.
POP PILLS?
I currently take omega-3 for extra brain power, and amlodipine to maintain my blood pressure.
Stein also said that chocolate was one of his vices, telling Good Health that he only buys small bars of Cadbury’s Fruit & Nut or regular milk chocolate.
FAMILY ILLUMINATES?
Luckily not. My mother, Dorrie, lived to be 89 years old and died of natural causes. My father, Eric, committed suicide when I was 18 and he was 58.
Dealing well with pain?
I’m of the grin-and-bear-it school. After I had the heart surgery, I was given morphine myself, but the nurse caught me not dosing myself. I was afraid I would become addicted. She told me I was an idiot and that I should get on with it.
HAVE EVER REMOVED ANYTHING?
Apart from the defective heart valve, only my tonsils and adenoids when I was about six years old.
WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?
Worrying about my children and grandchildren. But I have a solution: I love DIY and I’m trying to figure out how to find the hole in the pipe under the floor that leads to my centrifuge. So I lie there thinking about it and it puts me back to sleep pretty quickly.
ANY PHOBIES?
It used to fly: had the aircraft been recently serviced? Was the pilot competent? But I’ve learned not to worry about such things, in much the same way I learned early on not to worry about a meteor falling on top of me! So it’s just heights and my fear of heights. I don’t like cliff walks or driving through hairpin bends with a steep drop to the sea.
DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?
No, it’s the fact that we all know we’re going to die that makes life so beautiful.
Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers, BBC Books, £28.