Keith Floyd: 'A Gauloise-smoking, red wine-drinking hero'

Published on Tuesday 15 September 2009 20:32

CHEFS and former colleagues have paid tribute to Keith Floyd following his death from a heart attack. He was 65.

News that the groundbreaking broadcaster had died sparked an outpouring of affection from figures in the food and television industries.

Floyd, who revealed in July he was battling bowel cancer, died at his partner's home in Dorset on Monday night, his ghost writer, James Steen, said.

The chef's booze-fuelled television shows made him a household name and he wrote more than 20 books. His latest autobiography, Stirred But Not Shaken, in which he describes his battles with the bottle, is due to be published next month.

Mr Steen said:

"He was a very generous man, he was very kind and extremely sharp and witty. He knew how to eat well, and he was able to convey that. He was a genius at what he did."

A string of fellow chefs paid tribute to the flamboyant cook. Antony Worrall Thompson said: "I think all of us modern TV chefs owe a living to him. He kind of spawned us all He turned cookery shows into entertainment."

Channel 4 star Jamie Oliver said Floyd was the premier TV chef and a huge influence.

He said: "Keith was not just one of the best, he was the best television chef. An incredible man who lived life to the full and an inspiration to me and to so many others."

Gordon Ramsay said: "Keith Floyd was a true original. A natural performer and a superb cook."

Marco Pierre White said:

"A little piece of Britain today died which will never be replaced. He was a beautiful man."

Rick Stein, whose first television appearance was a walk-on part in Floyd On Fish in 1985, said: "At a time when I was experimenting with Provenal dishes like bouillabaisse and bourride, he was a Gauloise-smoking, red wine-drinking hero who had actually owned a restaurant next to the Mediterranean. I never lost that awe of him."

Born in Somerset, Floyd worked as a journalist and was in the army before opting for a career in cooking. He met a television producer while running a restaurant in Bristol and went on to record numerous series.

Floyd's final television appearance was broadcast on Channel 4 on Monday. In Keith Meets Keith, the actor Keith Allen searched for his hero, Floyd, finally meeting him in rural France.

Floyd's friend Celia Martin said he had enjoyed a "good last day", celebrating encouraging news about his battle with cancer, as well as her 65th birthday. The pair lived in his house in the south of France, but had returned to her home in the UK for Floyd's medical treatment.

She said: "We thought in England we might get help to sort things out. We went to see this marvellous doctor and Keith felt really chuffed by everything he said."

The pair then went to lunch at a restaurant . "Afterwards he had a siesta and he came down and said he felt a little unwell but we had eaten so much I thought it was that. We sat down to watch University Challenge and then prepared for the 10pm showing of Keith meets Keith. He went to sleep, and then I looked at him and his breathing went erratic and by 8.30pm I couldn't rouse him and I phoned 999."

Floyd was impressed with the documentary, which included the first meeting with his daughter Poppy for ten years.

Mrs Martin added: "He thought it was honest and we felt that Victor Lewis Smith and Keith Allen had made an extremely good film."

'Often cavalier but above all fun'

EVERYONE has their favourite Keith Floyd memory. I have two.

The first is watching him on a small television set in our farmhouse kitchen as he interviewed someone over an alfresco lunch in the pouring rain.

My mother had never seen television like it and kept remarking that she thought it was marvellous he carried on filming as the pair suffered a soaking.

My second is much later, a few years ago, when I watched a snippet of one of his shows on Saturday Kitchen.

Fag in mouth, clearly the worse for wear, he was arm wrestling a particularly jovial barman in the early hours of the morning.

The next shot saw him cycling up a mountainside, hungover and complaining of heart palpitations.

That was our Floyd: raffish, charming, flamboyant, chaotic often cavalier but above all fun. In short, Keith Floyd made TV cooking unmissable.

Whether cooking on a train, hot air balloon, windy harbour side or invading the kitchen of some cantankerous house wife, once tuned into his programmes it was hard to switch off.

Glass in hand, he slurped, swilled and gulped his way through the world's kitchens cooking up dishes from Gascony to India.

In that sense his programmes were as much about wine as food.

If it went wrong, sod it, with his charming insouciance he would have a "quick slurp", shout at his cameraman Clive and blame the producer.

In today's sanitised world he reminded us of an era when television was more authentic and honest.

I didn't meet him. Didn't want to. By the time I started writing a newspaper wine column he had already surrendered to his demons.

I prefer to remember him in his prime, on screen, offering us a glimpse of a life we secretly all wanted to lead. We'll miss him.

&#149 Will Lyons, Wine Correspondent, Scotland on Sunday.