One early-summer evening, shortly after Rick Stein opened his Winchester restaurant, we passed him walking down the High Street. We considered pestering him for an autograph, thought better of it, and settled instead for a brief meeting of eyes and a mutual nod before carrying on.

Years later, Stein has made his first move into supermarket food.

Waitrose took just six months to get its first Rick Stein supermarket range from inception to launch.

Charlotte Di Cello, Waitrose’s chief commercial officer, said on LinkedIn that the partnership came to life “in a mere six months from inception”. The range launches on 7 October and is the first supermarket food line from Stein.

There are nine products in total, six available year-round and three arriving for Christmas. Waitrose says all feature British fish and seafood caught or farmed to its welfare and environmental standards.

British hake and Scottish loch trout come in en papillote packs designed to steam in the oven, both priced at £14. A £14 panko white fish gratin replaces the usual mash topping with breadcrumbs and uses traditionally smoked haddock from Grimsby.

The range also includes a monkfish and whiting Indonesian curry for £16, Shetland mussels with XO sauce for £6.50 and Cornish sardines with lemon, parsley and chilli, also £6.50.

The Christmas additions begin arriving from 25 November, starting with dry-cured Scottish smoked salmon at £7.50. Lobster and crab thermidor shells cost £12. A £53 salmon, lobster and crab en croûte will be available through Waitrose Entertaining. The thermidor shells and en croûte both arrive from 18 December.

The range will be sold in 210 Waitrose branches and online.

Speaking about the launch, Stein said: “For me, it’s always been about keeping things simple – great fish, good ingredients, and letting them speak for themselves.”

The products arrive as Waitrose continues to build an audience around food beyond the supermarket aisle.

Dish, its podcast with Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett, has passed one billion combined downloads, views and listens since launching in 2022, according to Waitrose, although that figure includes short-form clips. By June, the retailer said the show had reached 165 episodes and listens were up 35% year on year.

Waitrose also commissioned a May 2026 qualitative study from consultancy HYFI involving 1,000 respondents. According to the retailer, 78% of Dish listeners said the programme had encouraged them to shop at Waitrose more frequently.