I DON'T begrudge Rick Stein a free trip to Japan at the licence payers' expense but the least he could do is to come back with some useful tips for us.

The premise of Rick Stein and the Japanese Ambassador was a simple one.

Mr Ambassador had apparently seen Rick prepare sushi on a previous show and wasn't overly impressed with his technique.

So before he handed him the piled up plate of Ferrero Rocher, Rick had to head East and learn the secrets of Japanese cuisine before preparing a banquet back in London.

The travelogue style of Rick's week in Japan was good viewing.

Watching workers on the fish market carving massive tuna fish with an axe was like an advanced version of a Generation Game challenge.

My main gripe was that when Rick came back to the ambassador's kitchen he didn't really do anything.

Instead it was left to the resident chefs to do all the complicated stuff while Rick just seemed to stir the odd saucepan.

The secret to it all apparently is to have the world's sharpest knife, but I suspect that if I tried to turn a radish into a butterfly decoration I would probably lose several fingers and end up with a wingless decoration.

Still Mr Ambassador seemed very pleased with the nine courses he'd been served up, although there was too mush raw fish for my liking.

It would have been good if Rick had put a few mushy peas with it - at least he'd have contributed something!