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There are very vague signs of Spring: mornings are lighter, if I slink off sharpish it’s still light when I leave work, and there are some small green shoots in the garden.

Green shoots are coming!

And in the kitchen all sorts of things change for me. I know that it’s Spring when I start reaching for Bill Granger cookbooks and put away Delia’s Winter Collection. I start craving different things to eat, lots of South East Asian, lots of lighter stuff. What else might be going on?

1. The casserole might be heading back into the cupboard, and the wok might be heading out more permanently. Quick, easy and full of fresh flavours!

2. The grow your own foodies will be busy prepping their fruit and veg plots, as well as working out what seeds to order in. I am really keen on Seeds of Italy, and there are some really unusual varieties of tomatoes and basil, as well as things like spelt and garlic chives. I told Dr T he should be chitting potatoes, but his hearing is not so good and he went a bit pale. If you’re not great with seeds, then order in seedlings ready to go in the ground. I like Sarah Raven and Thompson and Morgan, and I won’t tell your more green fingered friends if you don’t!

3. The pancake loving foodie will be dusting off their crepe pan ready for Shrove Tuesday. The less well co-ordinated will be looking at their ceiling and worrying. The really inept amongst us might choose an electric crepe maker!

4. The globe trotting foodie will be lured around the world to track down a huge variety of flavours. They were probably in San Francisco yesterday at the Crab Festival, and next weekend they could be at Menton in the South of France for the Lemon Festival. And you could head anywhere with a Chinatown next weekend ready for Chinese New Year.

5. Those of us with just Oyster cards will be enjoying a Parisian experience in W1, by heading to Pierre Herme’s instore patisserie at Selfridges for some truly magnificent macaroons. These are exquisite looking, and taste as good as they look. If you want to try recreating them, his book is only avaiable in French through Amazon France, although I can recommend a read of the experiences over on the He Eats blog. I particularly want to give the Salted Caramel and Apple ones a go.

So, even if more snow comes, just hang on in there, the Spring is on it’s way along with all the bounty that will bring.

Interesting shot of shoots by sciondriver over on Flickr.

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We were discussing my slightly obscure taste in fragrance last night, which does tend to often include those that to some smell like an ashtray. I have an absolute passion for Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford, but can be found sniffing the original Dolce & Gabbana for Men with it’s leather and cigar smoke notes. And then there’s Feuilles de Tabac from Miller Harris…

Smoked olive oil from The Organic Smokehouse

Anyway, this addiction transfers across to food too (in fact everything except actually smoking, which I am not at all keen on), so this is my list of Valentine’s Day gifts for those foodies with a love of good smoky flavours!

* Starting with something fairly mild on the smoke front, how about a whole smoked chicken from Upton Smokery? Bathed in aromatic smoke and slow cooked, this would make a great meal, hot or cold. Plus wrapping up a whole chicken has got to have some great comedy value.

* Upgrade the extra virgin olive oil experience, with organic smoked olive oil from The Organic Smokehouse. This would make for a whole new flavour experience whether it’s mixed into a salad dressing, or just for dipping great bread into (I would think it would work really well with a good sourdough).

* For a great accompaniment to that olive oil, then how about Smoked Sea Salt from Halen Môn? Infused with smoke from Welsh oak, this has an almost sweet edge to it, like many tobaccos, and will give the foodie hours of pleasure in working out how to best make use of the unique flavour.

* Not really new news, but the tobacco truffles from Artisan du Chocolat are one of the most creative food uses of the tobacco flavour around. You can order them online, just make sure that you fill in the comments to specially request them. They have to be tried at least once in a lifetime.

* If you want to really push the boat out, then London Fine Foods offer a Smoked Hamper which has everything from smoked salmon and eel through to smoked duck and pigeon. Certainly plenty of smokiness to go at, although not for the vegetarian!

* If this flavour thing is bordering on an obsession, then how about learning how to smoke your own things? With

Benromach Peat Smoke

a day course in Cumbria they could learn to smoke cheese, meats and vegetables, looking at both hot and cold smoking, as well as brining. Plenty of hands on experience, not to mention eating and goodies to take home.

* For a smoke filled finish, then how about Benromach Peat Smoke Batch 2 Whisky? According to the tasting notes, this has a seriously smoky character, being complex, intense and challenging, and yet well balanced (so, that’s where I went wrong with my men, missed the last bit out! ) And if you like a splash of water, this will bring out treacle toffee and creamy notes. Sounds delicious. Now, if only I liked whisky!

There’s a fabulous article on cooking with tobacco in the first edition of Fire and Knives, and a subscription to that should be every foodies gift wish list. If they are inspired, and if your local tobacco merchants is a thing of the past, then try James Barber for a great selection of loose tobacco online. Just stick to smoky flavours, rather than taking up the evil weed!

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Given that this is the closest Friday Five to Burns Night, today’s cookbooks all have a Scottish slant to them, which has certainly had its own food renaissance. These books will therefore take you way beyond neeps and tatties, haggis and deep-fryed Mars bars.

Nick Nairn Cook School Cook Book

1. Nick Nairn Cook School - Nick is someone I can watch time and time again, and a few days at his Cook School would be a great present for any foodie. If that is a bit out of reach at the moment (prices seem to start about £150 plus your accommodation) then maybe the book of the school would be a good alternative. Perfect for serious or not so serious foodie, there are sections on technique as well as recipes, so you can brush up on your knifework or need to know how to prep a lobster then this is perfect. And it’s not all about fish, although there are great fish recipes. I’d be quite keen to try the Cook School steak with Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar.

2. Maw Broon’s Cookbook: The Broon’s Cookbook for Every Day and Special Days - these characters will be very familiar to the readers of the “Sunday Post” in Scotland, and this is an entertaining read with some good recipes. This would make a good gift for expat Scottish foodies with a nostalgia for home, and tastes of home.

3. Taste Ye Back: Great Scots and the Food That Made Them - part interviews with famous Scots, and part recipes, this will reveal what dishes they loved. We can enjoy foodie reminisces from Sharleen Spiteri, Ewan McGregor and Andy Murray, and then perfect the dishes that they love.

4. The Caledonian Kitchen- I’ve featured this one before when I looked at charity cookbooks, but it’s worth a mention again. With recipes from around Scotland, the sale of this book goes to support Action Duchenne, the UK charity working towards finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. The recipes come from a mix of celebrities and award winning Scottish chefs, as well as from ordinary people across the country who support the charity.

5. The Three Chimneys: Recipes and Reflections- The Three Chimneys is somewhere I’d love to go. Talk about combining spectacular cooking with amazing scenery! The photography is beautiful, and the recipes cover traditional Scottish fayre, as well as more modern updates. I like the idea of Autumn pudding as a seasonal alternative, and cranachan is always worth making.

So, whether you’re doing a full on Burn’s Night dinner, or just perhaps pouring a wee dram, it’s a great excuse to have a look at just how much great cooking has been coming out of Scotland.

Eating together - surely a cultural experience?

As I drove into the office today, I got to pondering if perhaps I was way off base yesterday about Turkish food, and also why the Istanbul capital of culture website made no reference to food or eating. And then tweeting with Tom Aikens about the subject made me wonder if food is not considered culture?

After all, do I remember when Liverpool was the capital of culture a rich outpouring of interest in British food? Perhaps not her, maybe overseas, which is perhaps part of the whole PR campaign for these designations. During Liverpool’s year Taste Lancashire 08 was running, bringing a whole region’s food into focus, and there was a Food & Drink Festival during the year. It doesn’t look like either got major PR pushes though.

So, what is culture? If I google it, then I get definitions that include a particular society at a particular time and place, and the tastes in arts and manners that are favoured by a social group. What I think gets closest for me is the connection to anthropology, and would therefore links culture to the distinct ways that people living in different parts of the world classified and represented their experiences, and acted creatively.

Now if that doesn’t involve cooking and eating, I don’t know what does. Early man went out to basically look for food to survive, which would have then led him to different experiences, places with different foodstuffs. There would no doubt have been long tales around the campfire about how difficult that day’s mammoth was to catch, and that story could have expanded and grown, put into a poem, put to music. Someone eventually found a way to record it through drawing it on walls. But without food, none of this might have started.

One of my favourite reads this year was Cod: A Biograph of the Fish That Changed the World. It was a fascinating read, to see how hunting just one food led different cultures to meet, combine, clash, part and also share. There were very unusual recipes using every part of the fish, and I mean every part. But without the fish, these traditional recipes wouldn’t have developed, and nations wouldn’t have crossed oceans to hunt and trade in the fish.

And then there’s the act of sitting down to eat and drink together. Where would all great artists be without meetings in cafes and restaurants? How much debate went on at those gatherings? Every city in the world seems to have a restaurant that was a favourite gathering place of the writers and artists of the day. My favourite is Bagutta in Milan, where they founded the first Italian literary award. Not to mention they make a fabulous risotto, and their stuffed courgette flowers when available are perfection.

Certainly if you bang food and culture into the search bar on Amazon you get back over 700 results. I’m no academic, but for me culture and food are intertwined, and so I am just slightly bemused, and saddened, that these cultural celebrations don’t have food very near to the heart of them. What better way to show people your culture than how you sit and break bread together?

Given the richness of Turkish cuisine, not to mention the melting pot of cultures represented in Istanbul, I think it would be a real shame if they were to let their year go by without celebrating the thing that probably kicked off every aspect of culture. So, go cook, invite friends round, start a conversation, debate, argue, agree, laugh. That’s culture to me, as much as the next big artist. And, lets face it, foodies, gourmands, food lovers and all are a cultural movement all of our own!

Fabulous photo of the camaraderie of eating together by Simon Blackley on Flickr.

Worth having someone else carry to your house!

There seems to be an obesity problem, and I’m not just talking about our waistlines! Browsing the food section of the bookshop it seems that cookbooks are just growing and growing in size! Which means you probably don’t want to lug them home. Well, not unless you buy two and are equally balanced, so getting a workout as you walk back! But if you’re not keen on that idea, then maybe request these from Santa and let the sleigh take the strain!

Here’s my five heavyweights for your consideration:

1. The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal – this seems to be one of the weightiest around, weighing in at over 11 and a half pounds! That’s some serious book going on. Not the kind of book you’re going to whip out to cook up a last minute Wednesday night supper in half an hour, but a book to savour and enjoy in wonder and astonishment. Those of you whose molecular gastronomy is more up to speed than mine may well cook from it, the rest of us will just enjoy it! If you want a lighter weight Duck, then try The Fat Duck Cookbook.

2. A Day at ElBulli by Ferran Adria – must be something about those molecular gastronomy blokes, they add extra weight to the paper by some magical means. But compared to the Fat Duck tome, this is lightweight, as it tips the scales at a little under 7 pounds. Pah, nothing! Not so much a recipe book as an insight into everything that goes into making these eating experiences memorable. Great photographs take you through a day in the life of the restaurant, from sunrise to the end of service.

3. The Silver Spoon - this is definitely on my Christmas list, as I adore Italian food, and have had to eat my way around Milan and Bologna on various work trips. Tough, I know. In fact I don’t know how I don’t own this one already, it’s an absolute classic, the equivalent of Delia’s Complete Cookery Course in Italy. Looking forward to getting food stains and flour throughout its 6lbs worth of pages. I love the fact that recipes come with recommended wines, all Italian I would guess, and there are menu suggestions too. I can see the pasta machine getting a good work out if Santa lugs this down our chimney!

4. Vefa’s Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou - possibly doing for Greek food what The Silver Spoon has done for Italian, this is just over 5.5 pounds of Greek delights. You just know this is going to take you way beyond dolmades and kleftico, and get into some fantastic regional dishes. I think this is a book to prop open on a cold night when it feels like the sunshine and warmth has gone for ever, and dream of a little taverna by the sea, a cold beer and amazingly well cooked simple food that tastes divine. No sign of molecular anything here, just a deep exploration into an underrated cuisine.

5. Happy in the Kitchen by Michel Richard - I know nothing about Michel Richard, although love that he calls himself Captain Crunch. Five pounds of technique meets whimsy, I like the fact that its recipes are playful and fun to cook. It also says they’re unique, often wildly simple and always genius. If you’re in Washington DC, you can visit his restaurant, Citronelle, and the food looks amazingly beautiful.

So, 34 pounds of cookbook delight that would definitely be worth getting your bookshelves reinforced for!

Time for another Friday Five from a guest blogger for a different point of view. Scott Can Cook is a fantastic blog, and I follow Scott on Twitter. Which can be a terrible thing, as he regularly invokes real food envy, particularly as he’s been working his way through the menu at Jamie’s Italian on a fairly regular basis. In fact, it would seem impossible that Scott has time to cook given the amount of eating out he does, so his choice of cookbooks seems entirely appropriate! Over to Scott!

A good friend recently proclaimed ‘Eating in is the new eating out’. In some aspects I tend to agree. You have complete control over ingredients and special requests. You can have seconds without the shame. Finally you get the satisfaction that you have cooked a phenomenal meal! The only downside is there is not a kitchen brigade to clean up the mess. I’ve picked my five top cookbooks that you can dine like a restaurant in the comfort of your own home.  

Cook Wagamama at home

The Wagamama Cookbook

If you are a fan of this Japanese noodle chain, then this book is an essential companion. The recipes are straightforward and easy to follow with proven results. The recipes are bursting with flavour and fun to cook.  All of the favourites are there: Chicken Kare Lomen, Vegetable Gyozas, Tora Kare Age and Amai Undon. Their book even has dishes that are not on the current menu. One word of warning, there is no recipe for Chicken Katsu Curry.  If you are a fan of the curry, seek out Japanese Golden Curry in the Japanese/Chinese markets, it’s a close match!

The Silver Spoon

I love eating out in Italian restaurants and there are loads of good cookbooks out there like Jamie’s Italy and The River Cafe, but one book trumps them all and that it The Silver Spoon. It is the most influential and successful cookbook in Italy. Originally published in 1950, it became an instant classic, selling over one million copies in eight editions. Considered to be essential in every household, it is still one of the most popular wedding presents in Italy today. It contains  hundreds of traditional Italian recipes and also modern recipes from some of the most famous Italian chefs, resulting in a style of cooking that appeals to the gourmet as well as the occasional cook. With over 2,000 recipes illustrated with specially commissioned artwork and photography, the book is destined to become a new classic in the Italian cookbook list.

The Last Course

I accidentally fell in love with the genius of Claudia Fleming one summer whilst having dinner at the Grammercy Tavern. The meal was amazing, but the desserts were out of this world. Now we are not talking show off desserts that defy architectural standards, just wonderfully composed, intellectual, and mouthwateringly divine! Claudia pioneered the composed dessert revolution. What is a composed dessert? Well separate desserts that are served together to make an altogether more impactful whole. I had the Rose Meringues with Summer Berries, Raspberry Sorbet, and Goat Yogurt Rose Mousse.  This is an essential for anyone that wants to deliver show stopping finales to their meals!

A Day At El Bulli

You know when there are odds of like 8 in a billion to get a reservation at a restaurant ,you need something to satisfy your desire for El Bulli. This book is just that. It’s part cookbook and part journal that gives you an insight into the ideas, methods and creativity of Ferran Adria. Even if you never cook a single recipe from the book it is worth it for the little peek into a day at the restaurant.  Includes over 1,200 photographs documenting the painstaking preparations for just one day of service from dawn at 6.15 am to switching off the lights at 2.00 am.  The book highlights 30 dishes which represent a full elBulli menu including Samphire Tempura with Saffron and Oyster Cream, Steamed Brioche with Rose-Scented Mozzarella, and Souffle of Granadilla with Cardamom Toffee. A must for any aspiring gourmand!

Ad Hoc at Home

There are cookbooks that are pure sex to look at and those that will get abused and used within an inch of their lives. Until now the two have never crossed paths. Ad Hoc at Home is the latest cookbook from America’s most noteworthy chef, Thomas Keller.  In Keller’s previous books he instills precision of technique and refinement of flavours, but most of the recipes were out of reach from home cooks.  With Ad Hoc at Home Keller delivers a Michelin starred execution of home-style dishes that people can actually easily achieve at home.  I’ve had the book for a week now and have managed to cook through about 12 of the recipes with glorious success. The book is beautiful to read and a joy to cook from.  The first recipe to try is the Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Forget everything you knew about fried chicken because there is a new king in town! Your guests will be awarding you 5 Michelin stars with these recipes!

So, we know now why Scott hasn’t been eating out so much! A fantastic choice of books that any cookbook shelf should be happy to include. Make eating in just as fabulous as good eating out!

We’ve just made it back from the East Midlands Food & Drink Festival, being held this weekend at Brooksby Hall near Melton Mowbray. Lets face it, when the local foodstuffs are pork pies and Stilton, you know you’re going to be onto a good thing!

Melton Mowbray, ruler of rural food

This is the third time we’ve been, and I would say this year was the quietest one we’ve been to. It’s also lacking the big name celeb chefs of previous years. No disrespect to Alan Coxon, but he’s not exactly James Martin or Lesley Walters.  That said, there were still some great producers here, and we’ve come home with some great stuff for dinner tonight and beyond.

So, here’s what caught our eye, our purses and our tastebuds:

1. Leicestershire Food & Drink by Rupert Matthews – had a good chat with Rupert about his book, newly published, and the calorific dangers of living in this area. His London 3 piece suit didn’t last long in the onslaught of pork pies and Stilton, all in the name of research of course!

2. Bedazzled Cupcakes- these were MGG’s pudding of choice from everything at the show. She went for the fudge one, I’d have been tempted by the Oreo one. I’m always happy to see Peppercorn Catering though, as they always have a good, and tasty, selection of gluten and dairy free options for free indulgence by the sensitive amongst us.

3. The Tiffin Food Company- from award winning restaurant The Tiffin in Leicester come some very tasty Indian ready meals, sauces and marinades. We sampled the Chicken Bhuna, which was a little on the hot side for me (I’m a wimp) but Dr T declared fab. Looking forward to trying the Classic Curry sauce tonight.

4. Bobby’s- the legendary Leicester Indian vegetarian restaurant is also providing part of tonight’s dinner. Thrilled to see them there dishing out a buffet of great veggie food. We’ll be having Chilli Paneer, plus a veg samosa and onion bahji. To our shame and regret, we haven’t yet ate at the restaurant (come on, we’ve only been here 6 years) but thought we should put that right any time soon.

5. W E Botterill & Son- these are just up the road from us, and when we have turkey at Christmas then we order it from them. Which meant we stood there debating what we’re having for Christmas dinner this year! And goose is sort of edging in there! Don’t go to Croxton in the first week in December though. An eerie silence will lay over the village, as all the geese will be hanging upside down by then.

6. Fire Foods - funnily enough had connected with Fire Foods on Twitter this morning. We have arrived home with a jar of the Crunchy Chilli Peanut Butter, which you think is just like normal peanut butter…and then the heat kicks in! Perfect instant satay, or for something a bit different on your toast in the morning.  I didn’t love the marmalade, it was just too much heat for me but, as I say, I’m a wimp.

Lots of other favourites from the area there too, including Brockelbys, Mrs King’s Pork Pies, Dickinson & Morris, Riverford and Picks, all providing great meat eating opportunities! So, if you’re in the area and short of something to do, not to mention need to do your weekly shop or just want to support proper food producers, then I would say it was £6 well spent. And kids get in free, though will probably cost you a lot in grazing money!

Depending on how you arrived at reading these pages, you may or may not know that I’m a big Twitter fan. Actually, Dr T says I have been wittering for years so it was a natural step. Anyway, one of the things I love about it is the great people I have met, and I’m thrilled that some of them have agreed to share some of their fave cook books, recipes and gadgets, as a guest spot on the Friday Five.

First up is the shining star of wonderful gorgeousness that is English Mum, and her old farts. I’ll let her explain…

Floyd on Italy

I love a cookery book.  I perpetually annoy my family as they fall over random piles of them that mushroom in every room in our house: in piles by the bath, stacked up in a leaning tower next to my bed and stuffed into already-groaning shelves in the kitchen.  My husband sighs every time he sees me glued to Ebay, desperately bidding on another ‘must have’.  Seriously, I should get out more.

Firstly, then, I suppose I should qualify my chosen title by assuring you that it’s not the authors of any of these classic cookery books that I am referring to as ‘old farts’, but the books themselves.  They’re my old faithfuls; always close at hand, well-thumbed, well-used and loved.  I find myself coming back to the doddery old dears time and time again and would be lost without them:

 1.  Floyd on Italy, by Keith Floyd.  Not just as a tribute to the late and much-loved Floyd, this one had to be included as I return again and again to his perfect ‘fresh tomato sauce’.  The ‘white bean goulash’ is also a stunning dish – brilliant for using the ham bone after Christmas too (oops, I said the C word, sorry!).  Not only a boozing legend, he was a serious craftsman in the kitchen too.

2.  English Food, by Jane Grigson.  As far as I’m concerned, Jane Grigson was the Grande Dame of English cookery.  She was delightfully scathing about fast food and supported the use of fresh, local produce long before it was popular.  First published in 1974, this is one of her best and should be on everyone’s kitchen shelf.  It’s a great back-to-basics book to buy for a beginner or student, and the stories between the recipes will entertain any food lover.

3.  A Book of Mediterranean Food, by Elizabeth David.  This was Elizabeth David’s first book and I find myself returning not so much for the recipes as for the wonderful, slightly ‘posh’ way that David writes about her travels and the Mediterranean cuisine that must have seemed impossibly strange back in the 1950s.  Her ‘courgettes au tomates’ is a simple classic.

4.  Good Housekeeping Cookery Book: The Cook’s Classic Companion.  I’ve got two versions of this veritable cookery

Good Housekeeping Cookery Book

bible, the first one presumably pinched from my Mum some time in the 1970s, then a revised edition from 1985.  This is probably my most referred-to book, not only for basic weights and measures, but for inspiration when a certain ingredient is glaring at me from the fridge, demanding to be used.  There’s great information about ingredients and cooking methods too.

5.  Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, by Isabella Beeton.  Try to find an unabridged version of this, a bestseller of its time.  Yes, it’s a weighty tome, but doesn’t everybody need to know how to dispatch a turtle to make classic turtle soup (apparently, it’s best to ‘cut off the head of the turtle the preceding day’) or handle the manservants?  A must-have for entertainment value if nothing else.

So there you have it, from flamboyant Floyd to impeccably organised Isabella: five old farts that should grace every bookshelf.  Enjoy!

And you can’t argue with that!

The Great Salsa Book

This may be the most obscure and tenuous Friday Five I’ve done so far, but couldn’t let the return of Strictly, especially on a Friday, go unmarked. X Factor passes this house by, but everything halts for Strictly Come Dancing. I think I’ve even recovered from being photographed between two of the world’s most photogenic people to come back and watch it again this year!

So here are 5 little numbers to whisk you around the kitchen floor, to have you hot to (fox)trot so you waltz off with compliments from all diners present!

1. The Great Salsa Book - possibly the easiest, but this hot little number will get you spicing up the action in unexpected ways.

2. Fig Jam and Foxtrot – here’s a surprising one! Never imagined would find one with foxtrot in the title! This is an intriguing pairing that could produce a few surprises. Not quite the beauty and the beast pairing, but a combination of fact and fiction, with over 80 recipes intertwined with the tales of six women from around the world.

3. Cook, Eat, Cha Cha Cha!: Festive New World Recipes - this is the book of a restaurant, famous for its Sangria. That would certainly get you whizzing around the dancefloor. Or possibly it really would be murder on the dancefloor! Good sounding recipes that would get things hot and spicy.

4. Slow: A Quick-step for Relaxed Eating - ah, can’t beat the old slow, slow, quick, quick, slow! I love a bit of slow cooking, and could certainly produce a slow cooked masterpiece an awful lot easier than I could master a quickstep. Like cooking braising steak, I don’t believe my feet were meant to go that quick!

5. Secret Kitchen: An Argentine Cooking Book - tango with your tastebuds in honour of the Argentine tango with this unusual book. I would imagine that it will involve beef, be deep and tempestuous and get passions aflame!

So bring on the sequins, pass the fake tan, and let the dancing commence! Appropriate eating is optional. Just watch out for these two hanging around a bar near you. The one in the middle is okay, but the other two shouldn’t be allowed to be photographed with mere mortals!

People not to be photographed with

Floyd on France, and life

That won’t already have been said a hundred times? But as it’s foodie night on the TV across BBC2 and Channel 4, I hope all of those starring, and those watching, remember how much they owe to Keith.

Lets face it, cooking on TV before Keith was pretty boring, although I have some vague happy memories of the Galloping Gourmet. But I really grew up with Keith Floyd being there, and boy did he seem to be having fun in the kitchen. Which is possibly why my mum disapproved of him. They met him once, at a gallery opening. Pronounced him very rude.

And very drunk.

No doubt the same day they found out the Pope was Catholic. I always wondered how I lived in Bristol so long and never once made it to any of the restaurants he variously owned in the city. Although at the least the bookshelves make up for that, and Floyd on France continues to look very well thumbed. I just checked on Amazon and it is still the best selling of all his cookbooks.

I am quite sure we will continue to cook from them, and watch the reruns again and again, as the joy in life of Keith shines through, time after time after time. So, please, raise a glass to Keith, a life lived to the full.