Thursday, 30 April 2026 on SBS On Demand (6 episodes)
Episodes also air weekly from 30 April at 7.30pm.
In his debut Australian series, celebrated chef Rick Stein embarks on a deeply personal food journey across his second home, Australia. Across six episodes, Rick takes viewers on an immersive trip that retraces his life-changing adventures as a young nineteen-year-old. From stunning Sydney harbour to remote outback towns, Rick revisits some of the places in NSW that first shaped him – and explores how Australia and its food is changing, and what makes it so unique.
Rick Stein’s website’s description of the new show. It debuted on the BBC on January 6 this year.
Destination NSW held a launch event at Australia House in Australia last December, with author Kathy Lette among the guests.
According to the show’s entry in IMDb website, guests include chef Neil Perry, designer Ken Done, and Jimmy Barnes and wife Jane.
The episode titles are:
- Sydney
- Central Coast
- North Coast
- The Outback
- The Riverina
- The Sapphire Coast
Episode 1 - Sydney
Thursday, 30 April at 7.30pm
Rick returns to where his Australian story first began: Sydney. Here, on the harbour, he retraces his memories from the late 1960s to today’s vibrant food scene. From Chinatown to the Opera House, Rick meets the chefs, artists, market traders and cooks shaping modern Australian cuisine, cooks for old friends, and shares his recipe for salt and pepper crab with bok choy.
Episode Two: The Central Coast
Thursday, 7 May at 7.30pm
Rick’s journey takes him to the Central Coast on Sydney’s northern fringe. Here, along winding rivers and vast estuaries, he discovers how the natural environment influences the way Australians live and eat. From a bush picnic to cooking with acclaimed pastry chef John Ralley, who’s swapped working in a Michelin-starred London restaurant for an off-grid riverside kitchen, to foraging for clams on Australia’s largest saltwater lake, Rick immerses himself in Australia’s great outdoors and its food.
Classic pub roasts, a table covered in Greek favourites and a crawl along a Fitzroy eat street: Rick Stein, the British chef who’s a household name in Australia through his cookbooks and TV shows, is eating his way around Melbourne. It’s all in the name of research for his new SBS program Rick Stein’s Australia , a six-part travel show that premieres on Thursday.
While he’s already shared a list of his favourite NSW food discoveries on his Instagram account – from burgers with the lot to lunch at Three Blue Ducks in Byron Bay – he’s guarded his Melbourne adventures more closely. (The exception being a shoutout to Collingwood’s long-standing, loud and loose Jim’s Greek Tavern .)
“I’m not able to discuss anywhere we visited while filming,” he responded via a spokeswoman when Good Food asked where he’d been eating.
Those spots will be revealed over the coming weeks, with Rick Stein’s Australia airing weekly.
(No episode in season 1 was filmed in Victoria, so this suggests Rick is currently shooting content in Melbourne for season 2)
Episode Three: The North Coast
Thursday 14 May at 7.30pm
Rick motors up the NSW North Coast to see how the popularity of its iconic laidback lifestyle is shaping food and dining.
Episode Five: The Riverina
Thursday, 28 May at 7.30pm
Rick journeys from the outback, down into the Riverina, uncovering how the harsh plains here were transformed into a fertile food bowl through the country’s first nation-building scheme – an irrigation project on the Murrumbidgee River that created millions of acres of farmland, and attracted an influx of postwar Italian migrants who reinvented their lives here. He also meets a farmer who’s turned emu into poultry, and celebrates the region’s vibrant Italian heritage, tasting iconic local dishes and world-famous wines.
Episode Four: The NSW Outback
Thursday 21 May at 7.30pm
Rick explores the vast plains of Moree and Bourke, gateway to the Australian outback, and the food heritage of its resilient and pioneering farm communities.
Episode Six: The Sapphire Coast
Thursday, 4 June at 7.30pm FINAL
In the final episode of Rick Stein’s Australia, Rick travels through the high country and back to the NSW South Coast. Known as the Sapphire Coast for its remarkable blue waters, Rick reveals that this stretch of coastline is now his home away from home in Australia. Passionate about the future of this beloved stretch of coast, and its exquisite seafood, Rick delves into what the future holds – going fishing with historian, Anna Clark; kayaking with traditional Yuin custodian, Nathan Lygon; and harvesting two of the region’s most famous, and sustainable seafoods, Pambula Lake rock oysters and sea urchins.
During the Riverina episode, Rick mentioned to the camera (while driving the SUV) that he had to stop over at Hanwood Primary School outside Griffith, as filming coincided with the federal election day (May 3, 2025) so that the crew could vote. Rick also said that he has been a permanent resident of Australia for 20 years, but not a citizen, so he is not allowed to vote. He however tried out the democracy sausage.
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