| <big>Floyd To Be Cremated In Banana Leaves</big> |
Legendary TV cook Keith Floyd is to be cremated in a banana leaf coffin, it has emerged.
The famous gastronaut's funeral will take place in Bristol, the city where he ran a string of restaurants and launched his cooking career.
A public memorial service will take place at Ashton Court Mansion at 11.30am on Wednesday before a private service for family at Canford Crematorium.
The humanist funeral is being organised by Floyd's partner Celia Martin, who the wine-quaffing raconteur had been living with as he battled bowel cancer.
Ms Martin has chosen a handmade woven coffin made from banana leaves for the eccentric entertainer - because of its environmentally friendly nature, and partly as a humorous nod to his love of cooking with leaves.
She told Sky News Online: "It will be a sad day. I'm still trying to organise the funeral and it's taking up all my time. But that's probably quite a useful thing isn't it - to take one's mind off things.
"But goodness knows how one will feel after the funeral - I think there will be a sudden drop when everything goes quiet."
She added: "There have been some wonderful tributes to him. The answer phone has been clogged with messages from his old friends."
She said she had received support from Floyd's old cheffing friends Marco Pierre White and Jean Christophe Novelli in arranging the funeral.
"Marco was an enormously good friend of Keith's and he and Jean Christophe have been tremendously kind and good after Keith's death too. They have been very supportive," she added.
"The funeral's not going to be sombre, it's going to be musical.
"Keith was hugely fond of music; it played an important part in his life.
"And that's why there will be quite a few bits of music and some very nice tributes paid by some very good friends."
The music is being arranged by music producer and songwriter Bill Padley with the help of Floyd's son Patrick.
Ms Martin's local funeral directors, AG Down, are arranging the humanist service.
A spokesman for the firm said any donations should go to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and the Big Issue magazine.
Floyd passed away while watching TV at Ms Martin's home in Bridport, Dorset, two weeks ago. He was 65.
He had returned to Britain three weeks before to start chemotherapy for bowel cancer, and died just before the publication of his latest autobiography Stirred But Not Shaken.
The pair had celebrated Ms Martin's 65th birthday with a lunch of oysters, potted shrimps and partridge at celebrity chef Mark Hix's fish restaurant in nearby Lyme Regis.
It was to turn out to be the famous cook's last gourmet meal.
They had settled down to watch Keith Meets Keith, a documentary on Floyd to be broadcast that evening, but the cook died a few minutes before the programme began.
Born to a working class family in 1943, Floyd was educated at Wellington School before first becoming a journalist for a local paper in Bristol.
But that didn't last long, and he decided to join the Forces after watching Zulu and rose to Second Lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment.
While in the Army, he played a major role in the kitchen and so-called 'Floyd nights' became the stuff of legend.
After leaving the forces, he flitted between jobs as a barman, dishwasher and cook before opening three restaurants in Bristol.
It was in one of those that he had his TV break, when he met BBC producer David Pritchard, and Floyd on Fish was born.
At its peak, the show was broadcast in 40 countries.
not good for a posh resteraunt to poison the customers.
