Rick Stein: ‘Think restaurants are a way to print money? You try it!’
The chef spoke to Graeme Green about Masterchef, criticism of ‘Padstein,’ and Christmas.
Childhood Christmas Memories
Of all the Christmas presents Rick Stein received as a child, one stood out clearly. “One year, I was given a push-pedal car,” he recalls. “I was still tiny, and we were living in the Cotswolds. You sat in the car and pushed the two pedals, going round and round the sitting room. I loved it.” Those were simpler times.
Hope for VAT Relief
Seven decades later, Stein hopes for a different kind of gift—from Keir Starmer instead of Santa. “A moratorium on VAT would be good,” he says about the support he wants for the struggling hospitality industry.
“80,000 jobs have been lost in hospitality this year. Things aren’t going well in our particular part of the industry.”
He tries to be pragmatic. “I know stuff has to be paid for. What the government is trying to do, I guess, is to increase tax revenue through growth, but raising National Insurance just stopped growth. If you face ever-increasing taxes, you cut back on labor where you can and won’t hire unless absolutely necessary.”
“I appreciate that the country is not in a good state, but it seems to me a complete ‘home goal’ to target parts of the economy that are not well-equipped to deal with it.”
Stein stresses that hospitality is often undervalued as a contributor to national wealth, yet tourism and hospitality play a crucial role.
Author’s summary: Rick Stein highlights the urgent need for tax relief in hospitality, warning that excessive taxes endanger jobs and growth in this vital sector.