The long lunch we enjoyed in 2003, which lasted three days, suggests Keith Floyd was master of the genre, says Celia Walden.
By Celia Walden
Published: 5:29PM BST 17 Sep 2009
Keith Floyd's last meal was a three-course meal with champagne and oysters Photo: AFP/Getty
It's some consolation to hear that Keith Floyd died after a long, sodden lunch. The one we enjoyed in 2003, which lasted three days, suggests he was the master of the genre.
It began on a freezing Friday in Hertfordshire, at the Auberge du Lac restaurant, where we had met at a party the night before. Noting the descent of a few snowflakes, Floyd mooted blithely: "Another bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin while the snow passes?" Only it didn't, and lunch turned into dinner, and cognacs by the fire. If there is a better person to be snowed in with, I've not met them: Floyd was a sharp, politically incorrect and ebullient companion.
The following morning, the roads were covered with four inches of snow, but Floyd convinced his driver to take us back to London, where we discovered that his Eurostar home to Avignon had been cancelled. Two more days passed in a haze of comfort food, witty anecdotes, red burgundy and cheap cigarette smoke.
We wandered, drunk, around the Natural History Museum, which was, he joked, "the only place I still feel young", before heading to his favourite fish-and-chip restaurant, Geales, where the maître d' marvelled over the procession of "daughters", of varied colouring, who would join Floyd at his table.
One particular anecdote, encapsulating his un-precious attitude to celebrity, has stayed with me. Years earlier, after a "kiss and tell" had been published in a tabloid, the paper rang to offer Floyd £20,000 to write a weekly column. "I told them exactly where to stick it," he explained. "But a few minutes later, my manager rang to say they'd offered £50,000. 'Listen,' I said. 'Tell them they could offer me £100,000 and I still wouldn't work for them.' "
A few minutes later, the manager rang back to say that the paper had offered £100,000. " 'Tell them I'd be delighted to accept,' " smiled Floyd.
--------------
Hicky...
Hicky
