News broke yesterday of the death of Keith Floyd. Despite current policy on Book vs. Blog it seems only right to mark the passing of a favourite chef.

Here are belgianwaffle's 8 plus reasons for admiring Keith Floyd:

1. For being politically incorrect before the term was even conceived

2. For upsetting an entire casserole while wearing rugby boots

3. For trying to cook on a yacht while rounding Cape Horn

4. For baking a fish in salt only to discover the entire thing had disintegrated and then - note - keeping the cameras running and doing something even better instead

5. For giving Rick Stein his break on television

6. For using The Stranglers' 'Peaches' as his signature tune

7. For cooking an ostrich egg in the bush while surrounded by - yes - ostriches

8. For opening a restaurant in France (an Englishman?)

What's the word - brio ... gusto ... elan ... nonchalance ... insouciance - probably all five (and others I can't think of right now). Basically, Floyd was a good egg (an expression he's probably approve of) and no doubt a nightmare to live with, work with, etc.

Belgianwaffle celebrates all such mavericks - the Jack Trevor Story effect: watching a car go over a cliff in slow motion.

I take my toque off to him.