Known for his catch phrases of, “dear gastronauts,” and “I’ll just have a slurp,” Keith Floyd revolutionised TV cooking programmes in the 1980s. He is credited as one of the first TV chefs to film his cooking outside, instead of in a studio, and has been described as a pioneer. Renowned for his heavy smoking and drinking, Floyd passed away in September, 2009 as he was preparing to watch a documentary about his life.
Keith Floyd’s Early Years
Floyd spent his formative years living in Somerset. The son of a working class family, he learnt about seasonal cooking when his mother sent him out to forage for mushrooms and berries at appropriate times of the year. In his book, A Feast of Floyd he describes how, as a teenager, he cooked what he considers to be his first professional meal for a friend’s family when the mother was away for the day.
His first attempt at a career after school was as a junior reporter on The Bristol Evening Post newspaper, but that was short lived. He then signed up as an officer in the Army but, that too didn’t last long. Speaking in the Channel 4 documentary Keith Meets Keith, broadcast on the night of his death, he simply said that he, “… and the British Army were incompatible.”
Keith Floyd’s Cooking and TV Career
After leaving the Army, Floyd was taken on as a trainee cook at the Royal Hotel in Bristol before eventually opening his first restaurant in the town on Chandos Road. It was whilst he was running this that a TV producer asked him if he would film a short programme on cooking for him. The programme was well received, and his first TV series, Floyd on Fish, in 1985, soon followed.
His unique style of cooking and presenting, with the ever present glass of wine close to hand, and the on air conversations with his cameraman, proved a hit with the British public and further TV series followed. Delia Smith said in Keith Meets Keith that she was one of his biggest fans, and that her Dad thought he was the best TV chef. However, Floyd lacked business acumen, and was made bankrupt in the 1990s.
The Final Years of Keith Floyd’s Life
At about the turn of the millennium, Floyd disappeared from the TV screens but still made headlines when he was convicted of drink driving in 2004, and again in 2008 when he collapsed and spent some days in an intensive care hospital unit. He opened a restaurant in Thailand and continued to write cookery books though. His autobiography Stirred But Not Shaken is due for release in October 2009.
Married four times, Floyd leaves behind a son and a daughter. He also leaves behind the image of a flamboyant, but somewhat reckless man who was passionate about food, but who also enjoyed simpler pleasures like corned beef and piccalilli. In 2007, he said his final meal request would be Cornish lobster, roast leg of Welsh spring lamb, onion sauce, runner and broad beans with new potatoes followed by Scottish raspberries and Cornish clotted cream.
In 2008, Keith Allen (a Welsh actor, comedian and television presenter) and a film crew met up with Floyd, at his home in Avignon, France, to make the documentary Keith Meets Keith for the UK’s Channel 4. On September 14th 2009, after a lunch in London, Keith Floyd, whilst preparing to watch the first public screening of the documentary, collapsed and died of a heart attack.
Other Sources:
- The Times Digital Archive
- The Mirror newspaper
- The Independent newspaper
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