Shooting the Cook

As the producer behind the phenomenally successful Keith Floyd and Rick Stein BBC cookery programs, David Pritchard tells the tale of the ascent of the celebrity chef. Twenty-five years ago, no one could have foreseen the incredible popularity commanded by food programs on television today. Now we have a whole army of chefs representing virtually every single personality trait from sexy to aggressive, to young and experimental. But back then, when Floyd was found, he was the only onethe chef to start it all. Charismatic, with a slight erratic edge, always happy to have a slurp of wine or two, and not afraid to say exactly what he thought on air, Floyd was a revelation, a chef that television had not seen the like of before. Shooting the Cook divulges the stories of what went on behind the scenes of the groundbreaking television programs that inspired the event of modern television chefs as we know them today. David Pritchard shares the overwhelming excitement that went into making the early Floyd seriesfrom sitting down to a silver service dinner aboard a tiny fishing trawler heading out of the Plymouth Sound, to attempting abortive hot-air balloon adventures over Alsace. Tangled up amid the tales of the bust-ups, the botched camera shots, and the exquisite regional food are reminisces about David’s life growing up in ration-starved, post-war Britain. Also containing snapshots of life behind the scenes of sixties television-making and spanning the era from when avocados were virtually unheard of to a time when the term "foodie" has gained an almost cult-like status, this is an outstanding memoir from the producer who single-handedly changed the face of food as we know it today.