The inn between chef floyd nieblas7/10/2023 In 2017, the head chef Rob Dawson took on the lease from them and today he runs the Maltsters Arms with the help of his son, Tom. George and Alison Scott-Welsh took over the place in 2011, undertaking major renovations, while retaining the heart and soul of the old building. ![]() Floyd’s autobiography Stirred, but not Shaken, was published posthumously the same year.īack at the Maltsters Arms, Denise and Quentin Thwaites ran the pub successfully for 13 years following Floyd’s departure. Celia called an ambulance and he was taken to Dorchester Hospital, but he had suffered a fatal heart attack. But Floyd collapsed before the programme started. ![]() That evening they’d planned to sit together to watch Keith Meets Keith, a documentary about Floyd with actor and fellow bon viveur Keith Allen. To celebrate getting the all-clear from his doctor, Floyd and Celia enjoyed a special lunch at his friend Mark Hix’s restaurant at Lyme Regis, enjoying champagne cocktails, oysters and a £49 bottle of burgundy. After his fourth divorce the previous year, and having undergone extensive treatment for bowel cancer, he moved back to the UK and was living in Bridport, Dorset, with old friend and new partner Celia Martin. ![]() Keith Floyd and his fourth wife, Tess, say cheers with a glass of red in 1996 (Image: PA)įloyd died in September 2009, aged 65. Even if he wasn’t always hands-on in the kitchen, the menus reflected his extensive acquired knowledge and natural flair, as well as his pioneering passion for local and seasonal produce. People started to flock to the Maltsters for a chance to meet the unlikely screen star and prolific cookery book writer, whose eccentricity and easy banter were coupled with a genuine love for food, flavours, feeding people and the sound of The Stranglers rock punk band, whose tracks provided his television theme tunes.įloyd’s adventurous, larger than life personality and the instinct for cooking he inherited from his mother, made up for his lack of formal culinary training. He even nestled a couple of realistic life-size fake crocodiles in the river to thrill visitors. He reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of pounds doing up the place, which had originally been a pair of cottages, installing three kitchens, decorating the B&B rooms in quirky style, and building a balcony where customers could enjoy the water views. The Maltsters Arms, Tuckenhay, Devon, pictured in the 1990sĮven though he already had several failed restaurants in Bristol and another in France under his belt, Floyd seized the challenge to transform the South Hams village inn into a gourmet food destination, with prices to match. ![]() Just three miles south of Totnes, its position by the quay in a picturesque riverside hamlet, surrounded by lush green countryside, made it the perfect spot to attract locals, tourists and well-heeled types arriving by boat. Starting with his Floyd on Fish debut in 1985, he’d gone on to share his foodie exploits in France, Britain and Ireland and the USA with TV viewers when four years later the little village pub at Tuckenhay caught his eye. It was the perfect obsession when he wasn’t wandering the world, cooking for the camera in the BBC Two series that made him a household name in the 1980s and 90s.įorever with a bright bow tie around his neck and a glass of red wine in hand, Floyd’s relaxed and flamboyant demeanour changed the face of TV cooking programmes, blazing a trail for the spontaneous and inspired travelogue style that has been much imitated since. Behind the bar at the Maltsters Arms in Devon, the exuberant television chef Keith Floyd felt very much at home playing host to drinkers and diners.
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