Rick Stein: 'I feel 20 years younger when I come to Mollymook'

The weather wasn't great, days were filled with Lizzie Maguire movies, walks on the beach, the occasional swim, the delicacies of blending families. But there was something about it that felt like home.

Even now, 16 years later he still feels the same when he turns off the Princes Highway, winding down through the lush green fields that line Matron Porter Drive.

"I used to feel 10 years younger when I got off that plane in Sydney; now it's 20 years younger," he says.

We're sitting in the pool bar at Bannister's By the Sea. Beyond that perfect infinity pool, both the ocean and the sky are a luscious blue, only the stiff chilly breeze reminds you that it's winter.

After more than 20 years together Rick and Sarah - he calls her Sas, and there is a bit of sass to her, complementing Rick's reservedness - have an easy air. They finish each other's sentences, are quick to compliment each other, share secrets - he once gave her a second-hand Ipad for Christmas, he has a dig at her for arranging their books by the colour of their covers.

"It's not like we're holidaying when we're here," says Sas, "if we're here, in London, or Sydney, it feels like we're home, the staff here feel like family, the suppliers, we love coming back here."

They're in Mollymook to celebrate 10 years of involvement with Bannister's. There'll be a special menu available through September featuring some favourite dishes from the past decade, a homage to both Stein's durability and local producers, some of who have been on the menu from the start.

Peter Cosgrove, the owner of the hotel, was a friend of Sas' family and in 2009 he rang Rick, who was back in Cornwall, and asked him if he had a spare chef because his head chef had just walked out.

"And funnily enough one of my best sous chefs had just decided to not only leave but he was going to set up down the road with one of his chums. I thought what a wonderful opportunity to get him as far away as I could.

"But I started thinking I really like Mollymook so I rang up Sas and said why don't we ask Peter if we can take over the restaurant. And so we did, and he said I was just thinking the same thing myself. It was done."

Rick admits he was somewhat worried at first, that Australia's love of Asian and Mediterranean cuisines wouldn't fit with his predominantly European-style of cooking.

"I remember I started with a lobster thermidor, which we'd just revised on the menu in Cornwall, a classic dish from the 1960s and 70s. I had no idea if it would work in Australia in 2009.

"But it was an instant hit, it showed me you could still do what was then rather frowned on - creamy sauces with seafood - and get away with it."

One of the items on the 10th anniversary menu is a raviolo of lobster with spinach and basil, a plump little delicate parcel of tender meat. It was on the menu in the early days of the restaurant but proved so popular it was too hard to keep up with demand and they had to take it off.

"Just eating it again has made me think we should put it back on the menu," Rick says.

As well there's a ceviche of local fish inspired by a trip to Mexico, a scallop fish with toasted hazelnut and coriander butter that's on the menu at all his restaurants, a snapper fillet with the most delicate vanilla vinaigrette, which reminds them of a trip to Paris, and a hot chocolate fondant with pistachio ice-cream, a nod to traditional puddings.

The best food experiences should evoke memories, Rick says. From soups his father used to make on a Sunday night, to meals in people's homes, to experiences he's had on the road as part of his foodie odysseys, in places as far afield as India and Italy.

He can still remember his first trip alone and what he ate.

"I went to Spain for a couple of weeks with a friend of mine from school, I must have been about 15 or 16 at the time. I've never forgotten the food there, particularly patata bravas, the real pleasure came from eating food like that without my parents, I felt so grown up, it was like a rite of passage."