Celebrity chefs not on menu at Floyd’s send-off

FAMILY and friends celebrated the eventful life of TV chef Keith Floyd at a humanist funeral yesterday, but his celebrity peers were notable by their absence.

Floyd, 65, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in June, died at the home of his partner Celia Martin in Dorset on September 14 after suffering a heart attack. Fellow celebrity chefs, including close friends Marco Pierre White and Jean-Christophe Novelli, paid tribute to the flamboyant restaurateur following his death. However, yesterday White, Novelli and a long list of famous food enthusiasts who paid a debt of gratitude to Floyd for paving the way to successful careers were nowhere to be seen among the 200 guests.

Biographer James Steen, who helped organised the humanist service at Ashton Court Mansion, in Bristol, said: “This wasn’t an event for chefs, nor did his family specifically invite any. I don’t think that’s a problem, and I don’t think Floyd would be bothered by that.”