A SEASONED chef has swapped the heady delights of Mexico for a small market town as he tours the country promoting his latest book.

Rick Stein was at Waterstones Yarm on the High Street to speak to food lovers and sign copies of his new book The Road to Mexico.

The television series to accompany the book is being shown on BBC2. It sees the chef document the food and culture from San Francisco in California to Oaxaca in Mexico.

Fans queued down the street as they waited to have chat with the celebrity chef as he signed their copy of his book.

Aged 21, he visited California and Mexico, where he says his culinary journey began and the chef decided to journey back to north America and broaden his appreciation. "I went to California in '68 during the height of the hippy time," Mr Stein said. "It seemed like the most adventurous place with great music. I wanted to go back to see how it changed and I found that California is still very exciting and the food was excellent."

"It was an important time for me, because I had never tasted anything like Mexican food when I was that age," Mr Stein explained. "I always looked on it as my first real experience of exotic and foreign food. I have obviously been to India and south east Asia since then, but that was the first.

"I like to explain where I first had a particular recipe or an experience. It is not all about how the food tastes. It is part of a larger experience and the location can be just as important to your memory.

"People will always remember the first Mexican dish they eat."