Summer may be off to a shakey start, but leading chef Rick Stein can help you recreate tastes and flavours enjoyed on European holidays. He chats about his travels during his TV series Mediterranean Escapes and chooses a favourite recipe from his book of the same name.

Travelling round the Mediterranean coastline and islands sampling the food, talking to cooks, and soaking up the atmosphere sounds like an enviable way to earn a living.

- Sample Rick Stein's Summer paella

Chef Rick Stein, who undertook the experience for his TV series and book of the same name, Mediterranean Escapes, admits happily that he's hooked on being a roving gourmet.

"After the barge journey down the canals of France from Bordeaux to Marseille for the first TV series, all of us, the crew and I, were charmed by the thought that before long we'd start again where we left off.

"It was a wonderful experience and taught me so much not just about the food but the people in places like Corsica, Sardinia and Morocco."

It was a long way from his empire of food establishments in Padstow, Cornwall, and Rick reveals that "not every expedition was perfection" - there were a few peculiar local specialities. He described a chestnut flour accompaniment to meat in Corsica, as "awful, sickly sweet and sticky".

But most were entrancing: "One of the pleasures of going on food travels, (is that) you tend to head for places that are out of the tourist way." In Sardinia he went to Cabras on the west coast and Oliena in the centre, trying grey mullet which, "I crave even now I'm back".

He celebrates all he experienced, the many interesting characters and 100 mouth-watering recipes, in the new book.

There are recipes for Turkish Spinach, Feta and Mint Pastries, Puglian Fava Bean Puree, Sardinian Spaghetti With Tomato And Cuttlefish Ink, Sicilian Orange Cake and Corfiot Rice Pudding.

Rick believes that Mediterranean food is: "First and foremost about simplicity - the simple cooking of simple ingredients - so it translates well into everyday dishes that cooks of all levels can enjoy."

Going to Catalonia in Spain - his first trip to any part of the mainland around the Mediterranean - particularly impressed him and one of his favourite dishes from there is Chicken And Prawn Paella with artichokes and chorizo.