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Saturday, October 24, 2020

WONDER OF WEIRD - Rick Stein - Joseph Henrich

Capturing Soldiers Point, Bannister Magaritas and Bailey on Ice, Johnny Well, Nelson Bay cafes and swim at Shoal Bay - John and Farhana ...


The British chef Rick Stein might want to sing along. In his memoir Under a Mackerel Sky, he talks of the shame he felt when, as a young man, his bar and nightclub in Cornwall was found to have breached the licensing laws.

The local magistrate revoked his licence, but – by chance or design – left a loophole. One room of the establishment could be reopened if it were operated as a restaurant. Rick started cooking, specialising in local seafood, ( recipes ) and found he possessed quite a talent.

When his memoir was first published, Rick told the story on Sydney radio and I invited listeners to share tales of similar supposed setbacks.

Thank god for failure and bouncers with a sense of humour

At 2pm on a rainy Saturday, Rick Stein walks quickly across the pale beechwood floor of his famous Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall. As he trots past the diners, many look at him with astonishment, mouths agape like startled goldfish. Celebrity Chef In His Own Restaurant Shock! An experience rather similar, perhaps, to buying a Duchy of Cornwall ginger biscuit and having Prince Charles himself wrap it up. Although it’s not as if Stein ever actually cooks here any more. At a catering industry dinner in London earlier this month, the Automobile Association gave him a lifetime achievement award. “I felt a bit of a fraud,” he says, cheerfully. “There were chefs like Rowley Leigh and Shaun Hill there. They are the same age as me, and they are still cooking while I am swanning around doing TV.”


 A chippie in Weymouth was singled out by a celebrity chef who recommended people pay it a visit.

Rick Stein was so impressed with the fish and chips on offer at Fish 'n' Fritz takeaway and restaurant that he recommended it in his Seafood Lovers' Guide.


If I was invisible for the day I'd wander round my restaurant and listen to what people are really saying about my food!' Chef Rick Stein answers our probing questions


Luxuriously appointed on the exclusive clifftop of Bannisters Point, granting access to breathtaking views of a bush reserve on one side and sea on another, a wraparound verandah to take in these views while soaking in the sun and perhaps the largest outdoor jacuzzi in Australia! Rick Stein’s Mollymook beach house is the perfect palatial spot for groups and families.


Rick Stein: I nearly lost my business due to the pandemic


The local oysters at Bannisters are delightful.
 The local oysters at Bannisters are delightful.



THE WEIRDEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD
How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
By Joseph Henrich

According to copies of copies of fragments of ancient texts, Pythagoras in about 500 B.C. exhorted his followers: Don’t eat beans! Why he issued this prohibition is anybody’s guess (Aristotle thought he knew), but it doesn’t much matter because the idea never caught on.



According to Joseph Henrich, some unknown early church fathers about a thousand years later promulgated the edict: Don’t marry your cousin! Why they did this is also unclear, but if Henrich is right — and he develops a fascinating case brimming with evidence — this prohibition changed the face of the world, by eventually creating societies and people that were WEIRD: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic.


Why Are We in the West So Weird? A Theory