Chef Stephane Delourme departs Rick Stein Restaurants after 25 years

Stephane Delourme, group chef of Rick Stein Restaurants, is to leave to set up his own venture after 25 years with the group.

Delourme, who was head chef of the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow for 21 years before moving into a group chef role, has plans to travel the world running pop ups, offering private dining, consulting on sustainability issues and more.

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.

“The other reason Stephane has been so valuable, however, is that he’s an immensely engaging character who gets on with everyone.”

Jill Stein added: “Stephane really understands food and is a brilliant chef. He has been with us for many years and I never thought the day would come when we would be saying goodbye.

“We will miss him, but, I hope that he will come back and make an appearance every now and again like Padstow Christmas Festival and our 50th Anniversary celebrations. Stephane was the face of The Seafood Restaurant for so many years.”

Stephane, who hails from Brittany, said: “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’.

“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.”

Jack Stein, son of Rick and Jill, holds the role of chef director of Rick Stein Restaurants overseeing all restaurants from menu and recipe development to team training.