Keith Floyd

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Keith Floyd (born December 28, 1943 in Somerset, England) is a cook who has produced many cooking shows for the BBC and Channel 5.

Contents

[edit] Early life

After being educated at Wellington School, Somerset, Keith Floyd became a journalist in Bristol and after watching the film Zulu decided to join the British army attaining the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment. After leaving the army, Floyd found employment in several catering-related jobs including barman, dishwasher and vegetable peeler.

[edit] Career

His taste for wine and fine food developed and by 1971 he had acquired three restaurants in Bristol. However, due perhaps to poor business decisions or an extravagant lifestyle, all three restaurants had financial problems. Floyd sold the restaurants and the rights to the name "Floyd's restaurant" and moved to the south of France, where again he opened a restaurant. After this again ended in financial problems, he moved back to England. With the help of loans from friends, he opened another restaurant in Chandos Road in Redland in Bristol. Unable to use his name, Floyd, which he had sold, the establishment had a sign saying simply "Restaurant".

The restaurant in Chandos Road, near the BBC television centre, was frequented by actors and other TV related people. Floyd's first cookery book, Floyd's Food, published before he became a TV celebrity, had an introduction written by Leonard Rossiter, the star of the TV show The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. Floyd's first foray into the world of showbusiness was not, however, television. He began as a radio chef on Radio West, an independent commercial radio station in Bristol. As usual, his restaurant had dire financial problems, and Floyd himself often failed to turn up to do the radio programme. However, despite all of this, he was offered a role as a presenter on BBC television. He rapidly gained popularity, and became famous as a TV chef.

Interestingly, many of the things he cooked as a TV chef are things he refused to cook when he was working as a real chef.

Floyd appeared on advertisements for Continental Pasta and Sauces in Australia throughout the 1990s.

Despite TV success, financial problems and personal conflicts continued to dog Keith Floyd's career. Floyd wrote an autobiography called Floyd in the Soup, the title of which seems to sum up his career. Floyd has written 23 books to date, many of which have become best sellers.

In 2002 Keith suffered a small stroke and was banned from driving for 32 months in November 2004 after crashing his car into another vehicle while three-and-a -half times over the legal alcohol limit. He was also fined £1500.

He has travelled widely to cook local dishes and entertain people around the world. His cooking shows are marked by a tendency to consume as much wine/alcohol during the preparation of the food as is used as an ingredients, at times even surpassing the (already generous) amounts.

Keith Floyd is a big fan of rock group The Stranglers - the tracks "Waltz in black" and an edited version of "Peaches" were used as theme music for most of his TV programmes. Former Stranglers guitarist/vocalist Hugh Cornwell used to play guitar at Keith's restaurant during his student days in Bristol and the two have remained friends since.

[edit] Cookery shows

Here is a list of Keith Floyd's cookery shows:

[edit] Audio clip

This is a clip of the theme music used for a number of Keith Floyd's cookery shows:

[edit] External links

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