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CHEF Rick Stein has told how his business was nearly wiped out during the pandemic last year.

Rick said his restaurant empire, which is run from Padstow in Cornwall and employed 600 people at the time, was on the brink of bankruptcy.

The 74-year-old said: “It was very scary. We nearly lost the whole business.”

Rick spent the first lockdown in Australia.

He said: “Actually, my abode is Padstow. I’m there all the time.

“But I was stuck in Australia when all the restaurants in England closed.”