The French chef has worked for Rick for 25 years, but has said au revoir to launch his own ‘gastronomic adventure’ business
Stephane Delourme was head chef at The Seafood Restaurant, Rick Stein’s flagship venue in the heart of Padstow, for 21 years and was instrumental in building and cementing its reputation as one of the best restaurants in the UK. In 2019, he passed on the baton to Pete Murt and took on the role of group head chef, overseeing all 12 of The Rick Stein Group’s venues.
After a quarter of a century working alongside Rick, the 54-year-old chef is heading out on his own adventure. His new company, Stephane Delourme Gastronomic Adventure, will include pop-ups, private dining, sustainable consultancy and more.
Stephane said: ‘Food is life. It’s about making memories with people we love and I know that beautiful food makes people smile so I want to create memories which will stay with people forever.
‘Leading kitchen teams at Stein’s has been remarkable for me. I will of course miss mentoring these wonderful people and I will always admire Rick for his promotion of seafood, and his promotion of Cornwall to the world, but my time has come to say “au revoir et bonne chance”.’
Paying tribute to Stephane, Rick Stein said: ‘Quite apart from Stephane being a brilliant head chef at The Seafood Restaurant, I’ve had some tremendously rewarding experiences with him doing private dinner parties, pop-ups, food festivals, sporting events and charity events. The reality has been I’ve never had to worry about any detail at any of these, Steph has always had them covered, whether it be ordering ingredients, organising staff and cooking the dishes exactly as I wanted them. He’s always been a totally safe pair of hands.’
