Keith Floyd 1943 - 2009

I was dismayed to hear that the loveable, incomparable, mercurical chef Keith Floyd died Monday night (14th September) aged 65. Floyd was one of the first celebrity chefs and was one of my favourite chefs to watch. He really got the ball rolling with food and wine pairing and had maverick tendencies at times - challenging the establishment and the culinary world. His colourful style of presentation will be sadly missed by those who enjoy the less stereotypical style of food preparation. He could make a plain omelette look interesting on TV. Sadly Floyd passed away on the night that the first television show about him in years was shown on Channel 4 - Keith Meets Keith - you can watch it here (UK only) .

I found him captivating and charming whether he was marinading or flambéing (and half the time he seemed to do both of these to himself, which had me in stitches). Floyd was born in 1943 in the same county as me Somerset and educated at Wellington School. The money for fees ran out when he was 16 and he went to work as a reporter for the Bristol Evening Post, buying his first bow tie for the job interview, where the editor encouraged him as a restaurant critic.

Captivated by Michael Caine's heroic role in the film Zulu, he quit journalism and enlisted for 3 years in the Royal Tank Regiment, where he pestered the mess cook to produce gourmet dinners. Returning to Bristol in his twenties he set up Floyd's Bistro, the first of many restaurants (Floyd opened restaurants in France, Spain, Britain and currently Thailand). By 1971 he owned 3 restaurants which he then sold and bought a boat called Flirty in which he spent 2 years cruising the Mediterranean. To keep afloat he exported French wine to the UK and imported antiques from the UK to France.

Floyd's career took off in 1984 when he was spotted by David Pritchard, a BBC features editor. Taken with Floyd's irrepressible personality, Pritchard encouraged him to make his first television series, Floyd on Fish. The show was a hit. Fishmongers credited Floyd with creating a massive surge in demand for lemon sole, in an early forerunner of what has come to be known as the Delia Effect.

The subsequent series (there were about 20!) took Floyd all over the world. The programmes were ground breaking at the time for taking the cooking out of a studio and are still shown in 40 countries world wide. Floyd was a big fan of rock group The Stranglers – the tracks "Waltzinblack", an edited version of "Peaches", and an instrumental version of "Viva Vlad" were used as theme music for most of his TV programmes. Former Stranglers guitarist and vocalist Hugh Cornwell used to play guitar at Floyd's restaurant during his student days in Bristol and the two remained friends.

Floyd wrote at least 27 books and his first cookery book, Floyd's Food, published before he became a TV celebrity, had an introduction written by Leonard Rossiter, the star of the TV shows Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. In 2001 he published Out of the Frying Pan: Scenes from My Life; another autobiography, Stirred But Not Shaken, is due for release next month.

Floyd called himself “an outrageous Francophile” and settled in Avignon in France in 2000, having spent 10 years on a small holding in Ireland. He had 4,000 bottles of wine in his cellar, telling France Magazine:

“Because I live in the Rhône Valley, I buy wines from the local area including Châteauneuf du Pape. What we pay through the nose for here in the UK is really very modest to purchase from the local growers in the regions. What’s more, they will advise you wisely – whether to consume now or in 15 years and I find that very refreshing. I am a very loyal Englishman; I won’t knock England in any shape or form, but my preferred place to be is in France.”

Floyd loved the French Mediterranean cuisine and was fond of the seafood and fish in abundance there. He is quoted as saying his favourite French dishes were La Bourride (which is a fish stew of whole lobsters, whole pieces of monk fish and whole bass cooked in a garlic mayonnaise sauce) and Salt Cod (poached salt cod served with snails, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, green beans and served with aioli). Floyd was also partial to game (his father was a keen field sportsman) and enjoyed the autumnal fayre of wild boar, partridge and hare as well as the local rich beef stew – the Boeuf Tourane or Daube Provençale.

I thought Marco Pierre White's tribute to him truly summed up what we have lost:

"Originality is only original if you're the first and Keith Floyd was the first celebrity chef in my opinion. A little piece of Britain died yesterday which will never be replaced. What he did to inspire a nation. He had this great ability at the stove, great confidence. He was a natural cook. He was an individual, he was a maverick, he was mercurial, he was magical, he was special, he was rare."

"He had an ability to speak to the common man without patronising them. He inspired them. He didn't use recipes, everything was an extension of his personality. There is no one you can get to replace him."

Food and wine lovers around the world will surely miss Floyd’s unique and loveable style of culinary techniques, recipe creation and his adoration of food and wine. What I will miss is a creative chef who took his food and wine seriously but not himself.

So it’s ‘au revoir’ to a lovely man who we have not seen or heard from in recent times but who touchéd so many in his life time.