KEITH FLOYDTV chef Keith Floyd was the star of numerous cooking shows in the 1980s and 90s, often combining cookery with travel - a ground-breaking concept at the time.He was usually seen with a glass of wine in his hand and will be remembered as a bon vivant.He died on 14 September, 2009, aged 65, from a heart attack.Keith Floyd paved the way for a new breed of TV cooks with his animated, exuberant presenting style and his willingness to step out of the kitchen in pursuit of good food.His television shows saw him touring the world, incorporating eclectic flavours into his dishes while slugging large quantities of wine and interviewing celebrity guest chefs, making the cooking-entertainmen t genre his own.Keith Floyd was born on 28 December, 1943, in Somerset. After being educated at Wellington public school he embarked on a career in journalism, but the 1964 Michael Caine movie Zulu inspired him to join the army.He joined the Royal Tank Regiment and reached the rank of Second Lieutenant. Following his army service he entered the catering trade, performing the modest jobs of washing dishes and peeling vegetables. While working as a barman he acquired a taste in – and a passion for – wine.He acquired a trio of Bristol restaurants in the early 1970s and re-branded them as Floyd’s. But, in the first of a number of business problems, he ran out of money and was forced to sell the properties as well as the name.Unperturbed, he moved to France, the country he would later consider his home. The restaurant he set up there did not suceed, so he returned to England for yet another attempt with a concern now called simply Restaurant because he no longer held the rights to hang his own name above the door.This new establishment, situated near BBC Bristol, attracted the custom of television presenters and actors. Mr Floyd befriended Leonard Rossiter who wrote the foreword to his first book, Floyd's Food (1981). He also gave The Stranglers space for their early gigs and remained a great fan of the band throughout his life.He landed a cookery slot on local station Radio West and his flamboyant style proved so popular that the BBC offered him his own TV series. Floyd on Fish began in 1985 and was followed up by Floyd on Food (1986) and Floyd on France (1987), the first of several series in which he would journey across a country, sampling the local cuisine.Mr Floyd’s appeal was his naturalistic, conversational presenting tone and the fact that he took the cameras out of studios to where the food really was, visiting food markets and working kitchens. It was a format later adopted by the likes of Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsta ll and Gordon Ramsey.Celebrity guests would join him on the show to help him cook during an informal interview and he launched the careers of Rick Stein and Gary Rhodes. He was also famous for having an ever present bottle of wine on his counter, pouring more into himself than his dishes. In 1993 he played on his boozy reputation with the book Floyd on Hangovers.He wrote more than 30 cookery books and presented 17 television programmes between 1984 and 2001. His financial problems resulted in him being declared bankrupt in 1996. He was also married and divorced four times. He documented his eventful life in the autobiography Out of the Frying Pan (2000).
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