Keith Floyd has died

[SiHart]

From the BBC



Celebrity chef Keith Floyd has died following a heart attack, aged 65.

He died at his partner's Dorset home on Monday, said his autobiography ghost-writer, James Steen. Floyd had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June.

He shot to fame in the 1980s in ground-breaking cookery shows, presented with huge enthusiasm and wineglass in hand.

Chef Marco Pierre White said Floyd had "inspired a nation" with his programmes, while Jamie Oliver said he had been "the best television chef".

White said: "He had this great ability at the stove, great confidence. He was a natural cook.

"But his very special talent was he could articulate himself and deliver inspiration with words. He spoke in a way that everybody could understand."

He added: "A little piece of Britain died yesterday which will never be replaced.

"He was an individual, he was a maverick, he was mercurial, he was magical, he was special, he was rare."


"An incredible man who lived life to the full and an inspiration to me and to so many others."

"I think all of us modern TV chefs owe a living to him. He kind of spawned us all," said Antony Worrall Thompson.

Floyd opened his first restaurant, Floyd's Bistro, in Bristol, at the age of 22.

Years later, it was running another establishment near the BBC studios in the city that Floyd was discovered by television producer David Pritchard.

Their 1985 series, Floyd on Fish, was an instant hit, and subsequent series took the chef all over the world.

Wine-fuelled flamboyance

The programmes were ground-breaking at the time for taking the cooking out of a studio, but it was Floyd's wine-fuelled flamboyance that viewers loved.

"That was his charm, completely, the fact that if it all went wrong he just threw it in the bin and carried on," said TV chef Phil Vickery. Until Keith came along, people were very uptight about eating out and he helped us to chill out about it

"I think he was the untitled British gentleman abroad cooking."

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said Floyd had "pioneered a new kind of cookery programme driven by his exuberant passion for good food, good wine and a good time".

Worrall Thompson said: "He made cooking approachable and fun. He made us relax about food - until Keith came along, people were very uptight about eating out and he helped us to chill out about it."

Floyd wrote more than 20 books, many of them best-sellers. His autobiography, Stirred But Not Shaken, is due to be published next month.


Mr Steen, the book's ghost-writer, said: "For an autobiography you have to be introspective and he found that difficult to start with, but yesterday when I spoke to him he was a really happy man.

"He was very excited about it. The experience for him was therapeutic."

A lack of business acumen plagued Floyd throughout his career, and he went bankrupt in the 1990s reportedly after a £36,000 cheque he had accepted for a drinks bill bounced.

He was married four times, with a son from his first marriage and a daughter from his second.

Dorset Police said the death had been reported to the coroner for west Dorset, and a routine post-mortem examination would be conducted.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Very sad - the master of having a glass of wine in one hand and a flaming saucepan in the other!

RIP

[Si Hunt]

That's quite a shock, even though he always looked frankly like the most unhealthy person you ever saw in your life! If two words came to mind when he was on TV they were "stressed" and "wine".

Si.

[Alex]

Tis very much a shame, I was never a fan of cookery programmes when young but always found him to be entertaining. It's a terrible coincidence that he died the day before C4 aired "Keith Meets Keith" as it would have been his first proper tv show in ages. I wish I'd watched it now too, as I heard it was fascinating stuff.

[SiHart]

He was always entertaining, wasn't he? He certainly lived life to the full but I guess that kind of lifestyle is always going to catch up with you in the end.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

He always looked tense and stressed didn't he? That was his style - busy, intense, manic. It's not that much of a surprise that a heart attack got him, even though he was battling cancer (this must have contributed of course). I personally believe that stress is the secret killer - we all get too stressed, but I reckon if you can somehow manage to live life without stressing, you'll stand a good chance of reaching a ripe old age.

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

RIP Keith - another death to cancer, if not directly.

[Captain Tancredi]

Paul Cornell's blog has a rather good anecdote about Keith Floyd, but as my colleague Bryan said, it's to be hoped that they don't cremate him or the whole place might go up.

It's difficult not to like somebody who was so enthusiastic about the joys of cooking and good food- in some ways I suppose he was the antithesis of the foolproof Delia Smith recipe, in that his style was about having a go, enjoying the act of cooking as much as the finished product and admitting that things do occasionally go wrong in the kitchen- and that's OK because it happens to the best of us.

Also the right person for the right time as people in this country began to experiment more with foreign cuisines, barbecue and so on. But that raffish and slightly sozzled air just made him all the more enjoyable as a personality and you can't bottle that.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Yes this indeed is a shame, although perhaps not a surprise.

His shows were always a bit about having a bit of fun with cooking, very much a precursor to Jamie Oliver. I remember his cooking being about general things, rather than exact recipies. Much like I cook trying to remember ratios of ingredients (one made a honey and mustard sauces with a 1:1 ratio which made me very ill).

But he did like his wine. Every dish seemed to involve it, or the consumption of it!