These are the food and cookery stories that many people have asked me to write down. Please enjoy them as much as I did in being part of them.

Keith Floyd Tribute

This year saw the passing of a food legend: The troubled life of Keith Floyd came to an end at the age of 65 after a heart attack brought on, undoubtedly, by his lifelong weakness for alcohol and cigarettes.

Keith came to our TV screens in the 1980’s, his passion for fresh European ingredients and flavours bringing a new look to the way we thought about food in Britain. Before this we had been fed a diet of classical French cuisine in the top hotels and restaurants or at the affordable end came the Berni Inn steak bars.

Keith took his cameras into the markets and kitchens of ordinary people and cafes throughout Europe to show us how obsessed these normal folk where with the quality, freshness and seasonality of their food. Seeing this passion shown by the continentals, reminded Keith of a time when Britain was proud of its culinary heritage and so he took the cameras on a tour of the home countries to show everyone what amazing, fresh food was produced around us.

The food Keith produced had a simple style to it; he avoided the stuffy, over pretentious preparation techniques used by the top chefs of the time. This simplicity, along with his ebullient presenting style, brought him an ever increasing audience of viewers who found a culinary connection between themselves and Keith.

The influence of Keith Floyd did not end with the demise of his TV shows. Many of his viewers at the time would be, like me, young trainee or apprentice chefs looking for a way to bring our own identity into the classic cookery we were being taught. The dishes and ingredients shown to us by Keith will, no doubt, continue to filter through for a while yet.

So, our culinary heritage owes a huge debt to Keith Floyd. At a stagnant point in British food history he showed us new ingredients, new dishes and simplicity of style that everyone could understand. For all this we should remember this legend and finish, as he always did, with the raise of a glass for a “slurp” of good wine.