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"I'm trying to make people enthusiastic," Keith Floyd told Radio Times in July 1994. "'If a shambling old fool like him can do it on a gas ring in the rain, then so can I', they should say."
RT's Sue Arnold wasn't fooled: "Shambling old fool nothing," she said. Floyd on Italy had begun on BBC2 the previous week, and the chef's best recipes were being printed in Radio Times throughout the series. For this edition Arnold had also joined Floyd as he filmed the final episodes - or that was the plan, at least.
"There's just one snag," she wrote. "Where is Floyd? Has anyone seen Floyd? 'He went that way,' says the cameraman, pointing down a dim aisle.
The "flamboyant and entertaining television cook" proved to be hard to pin down in all senses. He was open and frank, yes; also rapidly changeable: "Keith Floyd reacts to a television camera as a lizard reacts to sunshine. One minute he's skulking in the shadows, complaining to someone, anyone. Next minute he's strolling along the line of Marsala barrels telling the camera interesting snippets about its history and production. You'd never guess that 15 minutes ago he knew as much about its history and production as I do about bovine spongiform encephalitis."
Then with the camera back off and his lunch with Arnold ready, "he looks like a man who ordered boeuf bourguignon and got a Big Mac instead."
But the production has been problematic: "You can see why he fumes. He's a perfectionist and he's knowledgeable - a formidable combination."
However, lunch turned out to be gorgeous: "Floyd is enchanted when waiters pour him a glass of 1840 Marsala, brought up specially from the cellar. I am less enchanted when I see how much it costs."
The meal and the wine turn Floyd "increasingly meditative - even melancholy. He confided that he has had enough of television, he wants to go back to his restaurant and do what he likes best - cooking. He's canny enough to know that life on a short fuse is no life at all. He wants to go back to glorious Devon and be a restaurateur, not a celebrity."
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Read our Best…TV chef blog dedicated to Keith Floyd, and share your memories of the gastronome.
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