Rick Stein says 'I'm lucky' as explains extent of 'unzip' heart operation

TV chef Rick Stein has said he was ’very lucky’ when he discovered how serious his heart condition had become. Appearing on Saturday Live on Radio 4 told presenter Nikki Bedi that his heart is now in such good condition it will ‘outlive him’.

The 76-year-old had been suffering from symptoms of breathlessness for five or six years when he was told he would die without the operation. Nikki said: “Almost two years ago you had a health isssue - well you had open heart surgery, didn’t you?”

Rick explained: “I did, I did. I was just very lucky because I, it was walking up a what you call it a mountain in Scotland, my sons, they said, ‘you’re coming for a walk, dad’, about 6 years ago, and I sort of set out, I was fishing with them. And I just felt terribly breathless and after that I went to see a cardiologist, and finally after about six years of keeping me under observation and having pills and all that, they said you’ve got to have the op and it’s the big op, it’s not gonna be the sort of, no, it’s not the stent, it’s the unzip.

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"So it was a bit scary, but it was just replacing an aortic valve in my heart, and it’s been a total success indeed, the surgeon said. He said, you’ve got the heart of a 37-year-old, and your heart will outlive you.”

On growing old he added: “I think the older you get, as long as you’ve got energy, vitality and interest.” Stein, who has just released his latest book, Simple Suppers, and has a number of restaurants including The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall.

He has said that it was the hospital food he was served during his stint at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London – the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the UK – that inspired his latest book. The night before the op, Stein thinks he “got lucky” with a good chef at the hospital that evening and was served up a beautifully simple, lightly fried haddock fillet, with salt and cracked black pepper, olive oil dressing, spring onions, red peppers and lemon juice.

“That first dish when I arrived in hospital was fantastic,” he said, and has even included a recipe for it in his new book. In his “dizzy” state after the operation – and a less delicious meal of overcooked lamb – he began dreaming up the simplest of dishes he wanted to eat.

Rick explained: “You think a lot when you’re in the hospital, and I was just thinking how wonderful [the haddock] was and how lovely it would be to write a book which was filled with these sort of similar recipes,” says Stein. “And I think the older you get, the more you realise, that the simpler recipes are often the best ones.”