So Keith Floyd has passed onto the great vineyard in the sky.
It often seems to be the way that two famous people die on the same day: and so it is that Floyd turns up his toes on the same day as Patrick Swayze.
Maybe it’s the parochial nature of Floyd being British, maybe it’s because I’ve barely seen more that 2 films that star Swayze (I have never seen Dirty Dancing, just for the record), but I feel far more affected by the chef’s death than the Hollywood star.
It’s fair to say that Keith Floyd played a massive part in revolutionising TV cookery – in the UK at least. Before he came along, it was all standing behind a counter, staring at a camera and playing a straight bat.
Floyd changed it completely. For starters, there was the wine. The glass of red became his sidekick, if you like, along with his bow tie – always the mark of a real individual.
But more than that – it wasn’t all about the fixed camera. On Floyd’s shows, the camera went right into the dish, the saucepan or the ingredients.
And then there was him. A great chef, a mesmerising personality and a true one-off – he loved words and he loved food: what a fantastic combination.
I first recall Keith Floyd because my Dad and step-mum were always going on about him. I was barely a teeanger and was more interested in Top of The Pops than cooking programmes, but there was something about him, even to me at that age, that made TV compelling.
Enjoy this clip which is actually about Marco Pierre White at Harveys, but Keith Floyd makes an entertaining, as always, appearance.
