15/09/2009

Celebrity Chef Floyd Dead

Cancer sufferer Keith Floyd has died following a heart attack, aged 65.

The well known celebrity chef had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June and passed away at his partner's Dorset home on Monday.

With his lively pesonality the chef shot to fame in the 1980s in ground-breaking cookery shows, presented with huge enthusiasm and wineglass in hand.

Already there have been tributes with fellow chef Marco Pierre White telling the BBC that Floyd had "inspired a nation" with his programmes, while Jamie Oliver said he had been "the best television chef".

Floyd's eccentric, often shambolic style of presentation endeared him to millions of viewers around the world.

White said: "He had this great ability at the stove, great confidence. He was a natural cook.

"But his very special talent was he could articulate himself and deliver inspiration with words. He spoke in a way that everybody could understand."

Floyd opened his first restaurant, Floyd's Bistro, in Bristol, at the age of 22.

Years later, it was running another establishment near the BBC studios in the city that Floyd was discovered by television producer David Pritchard.

Their 1985 series, Floyd on Fish, was an instant hit, and subsequent series took the chef all over the world.

Floyd wrote more than 20 books, many of them best-sellers. His autobiography, Stirred But Not Shaken, is due to be published next month.

He was married four times, with a son from his first marriage and a daughter from his second.

(BMcC/GK)

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