Food king Rick Stein isn't ready to hand over his crown

“It’s what we do really,” quips the 69-year-old seafood maestro, who over the years has cooked for a host of famous faces, including the Queen.

“I’ll leave campaigning cookery to other people – people like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who do a fabulous job. For me, it’s about saying, ‘Hey! We’re alive’, and what’s the best part of being alive? Eating and drinking... apart from the obvious,” he adds with a chuckle, “so let’s enjoy it while we can!”

For those who haven’t caught Stein’s BBC2 food-travelogue series, picture a colourful culinary adventure that follows the chef as he embarks on a string of European weekends in search of good food, wine and traditional recipes.

Meeting at the office of his London publishers, Stein – who splashed onto the foodie scene in the 90s with his early seafood cookbooks and TV series based on his life as owner of The Seafood Restaurant in the fishing port of Padstow, Cornwall – cuts a relaxed figure, excitedly reeling off vivid anecdotes of Palermo’s bustling markets and late-night dining in Thessaloniki, Greece.

“It’s great fun. Crikey – to be paid to go off to these cities,” he notes, rolling up his shirt sleeves as he speaks. “For most people who work during the week, having a weekend off is wonderful anyway. But if you add a bit of travel, it makes it so special.”

For a man who has now written more than 20 bestselling cookbooks, and incurs coos of ‘I love him!’ at the mere mention of his name, the decision to pen a tie-in book for this latest series was a “no-brainer”.  There are sections dedicated to Friday night suppers, substantial Saturday brunches and Sunday dinners, and the tome is intended to inspire in two ways – as a travel guide for the destinations visited while compiling the recipes, and as a go-to guide for those keen to cook for family and friends at home.

“If you’re cooking for your family during the week, you tend to stick to things you know because you haven’t got time. But at the weekends, you might well try something – and this is what this book is all about, really.”

And the Oxford-born restaurateur (he moved to Padstow in the early-70s shortly after completing his English degree at Oxford) certainly knows a thing or two about rousing enthusiasm in the kitchen, after decades of small-screen appearances on the subject, and having built an empire that includes six acclaimed Cornish restaurants, a seafood cookery school, delicatessen, patisserie, fishmongers, gift ship, pub and cocktail bar.

As a result, Padstow residents once dubbed their area ‘Padstein’, but in recent years, Stein has also expanded, and now has restaurants in Winchester, Poole’s Sandbanks, Marlborough – and the sunnier climes of Mollymook, Australia.

“People say, ‘It’s crazy, your life’, but it’s not really,” he says, after detailing how he splits his time between Chiswick (where he now lives most of the time), Padstow (where he still spends lots of time) and Australia (where he visits three times a year – and also where he first met his second wife, Sarah).

“I like travel, I don’t find it stressful.”

As for plans to open more eateries, he’s not sold on the idea of a chain, but likes to focus on offering opportunities to people with “considerable skill”, as he takes a step back from the day-to-day running of the business.

“I’m 69 – I couldn’t do what my chefs do now, I just wouldn’t have the energy,” says the father-of-three, who turns 70 in January.

“I’m lucky. Because I have such great managers, I can do less and less, but still have an overall feeling for how the business is going,” he adds, praising his sons (Edward, Jack and Charlie) and ex-wife Jill for their hand in the design, food, wine and decor fronts.

“If I want to retire, I will, but I don’t think I will, to be honest,” Stein reasons. “I don’t see why I should!”

l Rick Stein’s Long Weekends by Rick Stein, with photography by James Murphy, is published by BBC Books in hardback, priced £25. Available now.