‘I USED TO THINK I WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH. I DON’T ANY MORE’
From self-doubt to success, Jill Stein shares her journey
She famously carried on working with her ex-husband despite a painful divorce. Now Jill Stein talks frankly to Janet Harmer about the very real risk of the family restaurant empire going under during the pandemic – and how she feels stronger and happier than ever
It has been a long time coming... but Jill Stein appears to have finally shrugged off the self-doubt she has carried during her 46 years as one half of one of the restaurant world’s most successful business partnerships. However, it was the most turbulent period in the history of The Seafood Restaurant that brought Jill to this point.
‘We could so easily have lost the business as a result of the pandemic,’ she explains. ‘But after taking some really tough decisions, we’ve been able to carry on.’
Jill, 73, is referring to the company which she and her former husband Rick, 74, founded in 1975 in Padstow, Cornwall. Today, the business comprises 10 restaurants, four shops, a pub, 40 bedrooms across six buildings, three self-catering properties, a cookery school and a burgeoning online retail outlet. In the intervening years, alongside building their company, the couple raised three sons and experienced the emergence of Rick as a global culinary star, before going through a very public and painful divorce.
The one thing that has remained a constant throughout is the enduring business partnership Jill and Rick continue to share today. Despite separating 19 years ago as a result of Rick’s affair with Sarah, an Australian publicity manager, and divorcing in 2007, the couple have carried on working successfully together and grown the business. But it hasn’t been easy. In fact, when asked about her greatest achievement, Jill doesn’t hesitate in answering: ‘Continuing to work with Rick after the divorce.’
Any suggestion that one of the couple should buy the other out was never seriously considered. Jill certainly didn’t want to let go of the business that she had played an integral part in building up. Initially, she had worked front of house while Rick was in the kitchen and later she stepped away from day-to-day operations to oversee the design of the restaurants and shops.
Jill, who was born in Ilkley, Yorkshire, met Rick soon after she arrived in Cornwall in 1968 to take up a hotel job.
She admits that the couple became somewhat estranged from the business during the height of the separation. ‘It was a bit like a 747 hitting turbulence before getting on an even keel again,’ she says.
‘The separation was very difficult; I didn’t think I would be able to manage it,’ Jill remembers now. ‘Many couples who split up never want to see each other again. But I was determined to remain within the business as Rick and I were equal partners and it was such a big part of my life. I didn’t want to lose that as well as our marriage. I did it both for myself and for our sons.’
I carried on in the business for myself and my sons
anyway,’ she says. ‘He was quite happy that I was there running the business because he was in Australia most of the time. I’m a tough northern woman, but it did take a toll on my mental health for a few years.’
The Steins – like so many other restaurant owners – endured a very difficult year in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. The Seafood Restaurant empire was particularly badly hit as the start of the crisis in March 2020 came at the end of the off-season when financial reserves were at their lowest.
For Jill, the reality of potentially losing the business, which employs around 600 staff, was heightened by the fact that she was on her own throughout the first lockdown. ‘It was really tough emotionally,’ she says. ‘I walked in the morning for an hour and a half every day, often on the beach close to where I live. Mostly I was on emails and calls, making decisions about the future of the business.
‘We brought in two independent crisis managers with a lot of experience in the business continuity and disaster fields. They were a huge support.’
Rick was initially stuck in Australia when the country went into lockdown, making communications challenging. ‘I had to make quick decisions and often there would be a time lag of 12 hours or so before we could speak with Rick, hoping he would agree,’ explains Jill. ‘It was fast and furious.’
The most difficult decision came when they had to make 27 redundancies. ‘It was very hard,’ she says. ‘No one wants to put people out of work and we had to let some really good people go. But we had to do it to survive as a company.’
Costs were also cut elsewhere, with the in-house production of bread and pasties replaced by the buying in of some goods from local bakeries and suppliers, while one restaurant – in the fishing village of Porthleven – was closed.
‘Making these decisions was tough, but I knew they were right and they have made me stronger as a person,’ says Jill. ‘I believe I will never underestimate myself in the future.’
CONFIDENCE CRISIS
Jill admits to having had self-doubts for many years, something that was compounded by Rick’s celebrity status, which contributed to the collapse of their 30-year marriage. Once Rick started appearing on TV in the early 1990s, it would not be unusual for people to push past Jill to get to her then husband. When awards were bestowed on the business they would always be presented to Rick. ‘Because the focus was on Rick, I started to think “I’m not that good”,’ she says ruefully.
But Jill’s confidence has grown as personal recognition has come her way. She was appointed an OBE for services to the restaurant industry in 2013, a year after winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Women 1st Shine Awards. And in 2016 Jill and Rick were recognised jointly at the Cateys, the hospitality industry’s Oscars, with the Special Award. ‘Receiving these accolades has been very important to me,’ she says.
Jill’s self-esteem was also boosted by a five-year period spent working on interior design projects for Simon Nixon, the co-founder of Moneysupermarket.com. ‘I created the designs for his homes in Knightsbridge and Jersey, as well as properties he rents out in Cornwall, Barbados and overlooking Lake Windermere,’ she says.
‘It gave me a diversion at a time when I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to continue working with Rick. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, but at the end of it, I realised I was more interested in focusing on my own business.’
While Jill and Rick continue to be involved in making the key decisions around the strategy of the business, their three sons have increasingly taken on more responsibility and were all appointed directors of parent company Seafood Trading in 2020. ‘The business is now also theirs and it is important that they have a bigger say on what goes on,’ says Jill.
Ed, the eldest at 42, with a background as an artist and sculptor, shies away from the limelight. He and his wife, Kate, work closely with Jill on the design of the restaurants and overseeing maintenance. Jack, 40, has a degree in psychology and is the chef director of the group, overseeing the food offering across every establishment.
While Ed and Jack both live with their families in Cornwall, Charlie, 35, lives in London with his lawyer partner Laura. However, he is fully involved in the business as director of wine and has increasingly been involved in marketing and overseeing the launch of a new website.
Jill is close to her three sons, as she is to their partners and
It’s like being in a rock band. Rick is the lead singer, but everyone in the family has a part to play
her four grandchildren – Ed and Jack each have two children. ‘I had a wonderful relationship with my mother-in-law and I’ve always maintained I have to have the same with my own daughtersin-law,’ she says. ‘All three of them are wonderful women.’
For Jill, working with her ex-husband and three sons is akin to being part of a rock band. ‘Rick is the lead singer, but you couldn’t do without the other members of the band. Everyone has an important part to play,’ she says.
As regards to her relationship with Rick now, Jill says that once the emotional angst of the separation was behind them, they learned to work together again: ‘I don’t see a lot of him, as he lives in London now and is often busy filming. We meet occasionally and have a chat about our family and anything that is troubling us within the business.’
HAPPY NOW
Rick continues to oversee the food offering and handles PR, while Jill focuses on designs of new and existing restaurants and retail spaces. Lockdown was a chance to refocus online retail sales, with popular items from Stein’s Gift Shop, including the Porthdune by Jill Stein bath and bodycare products, selling well alongside crockery and cushions designed by Kate.
Meanwhile, the newly launched Stein’s at Home menu boxes, costing from £40 for two for a threecourse meal, have been going down a storm, selling 500 a week during the first lockdown, and up to 2,000 a week when restrictions returned later in the year.
A good summer of trading helped clear the loan the business had to take out at the start of the pandemic in order to survive. ‘We’re in a good place now,’ says Jill. ‘I’m feeling very positive about the future of the business now, whereas last March I wasn’t.’
Jill remains single as she has been since her separation from Rick. ‘I’m very happy,’ she says. ‘I enjoy my own company and I have very good friends. Some women need to have a partner, but financially, I don’t need anybody. I’m probably too independent – I want to be able to walk out my door and do whatever I want. I’m not lonely, I have my business, I have my children. I’m more than happy.’