Keith Floyd Keith Floyd was a
unique, fascinating and ultimately flawed man who ignited TV with his wine-fuelled cooking sessions on his many TV series, starting with ‘Floyd on Food’. Floyd started his gastronomic career at his bistros in Bristol. He came to the attention of TV bosses thanks to one of his regulars
being Leonard Rossiter of Rising Damp and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin fame. Rossiter wrote the foreword to Floyd’s first book, and fame soon beckoned. Several TV series later and the former Tank Regiment dropout had basically invented what we now call a ‘celebrity chef’. He was rude, he was irreverent, he was often drunk – but he was always watchable, interesting and actually very likeable. Floyd was always himself, no matter how bad that looked, and the TV audiences found that extremely attractive. He clearly LOVED the food he cooked and respected great cooks and chefs in a way he couldn’t respect anyone else. He craved good company, good food and good wine, and often found all three. He came to the Maltsters Arms in Tuckenhay in the 1990s, pouring £1million into a business not on the beaten track and to which he rarely gave his full attention. He got married to a beautiful Dartmouth girl, and their relationship was played out in front of the media – with break ups and reconciliations outlined in amazing detail by the national newspapers – until their eventual split and divorce in 1994. Then Floyd, perhaps not before time, went bankrupt,
reportedly after accepting a cheque for a £36,000 bar bill at the Malsters – which then bounced. He left south Devon at that point, and ended up in the
South of France, in his final years striking out angrily at the celebrity chefs he himself had helped to create. He said they put themselves first rather than the food, which remained his great love for the whole of his life. He died in 2009.
Mitch Tonks
One of the most interesting chefs to be linked to Dartmouth in the recent past – Mitchell Tonks turned his back on accountancy to become a fishmonger in 1995. His Bath fish shop soon had a cookery school and restaurant added to it, and became Fishworks, a new way of selling and promoting seafood.
Mitch had spent his whole life enthusing about seafood, and his enthusiasm and obvious skill earned him the reputation of being the real deal among those in the know in the catering industry. Fishworks quickly expanded and was even floated on the stock exchange. Mitch then started appearing on TV programmes, and his wide smile and friendly personality proved a hit with viewers. He was voted Restaurateur of the Year by Tatler magazine in 2006, the latest in a string of accolades that started with the 1997 Best Fishmonger award from the Food in Britain Agency and Country Living Magazine. He stepped down from his hands-on role with Fishworks not long after that award, and was then looking for a new project to get his teeth into. Having visited Dartmouth often during his childhood, Mitch came to the town in 2008 to see what there was available. He saw, just a few doors down from the now famous New Angel, a perfect opportunity for his new venture. The Seahorse, opened with his business partners Mat Prowse and Mark Ely, opened for summer 2008, and instantly earned a stellar reputation, for both its food and ambience. In 2010, Mitch and friends bought premises just three doors down the Embankment, and opened Rockfish; the second in a new high-end fish and chip restaurant chain. It was an intriguing and an original concept for Dartmouth, but a successful one, as the restaurant was crammed for the whole summer. Mitch, with a friendly and likeable personality, a love for food, and a love for the town in which he finds himself, might, perhaps settle here for longer than some of his more fiery catering colleagues.
The Sportsmans Arms A3122 Hemborough Post, Dartmouth
t: 01803 712231
• Roast of the Day Adults £5.95 Seniors £4.95 - 12 noon - 3pm Mon to Sat
• Carvery served Fri & Sat evenings and Sunday lunch/evenings. Traditional pub menu available.
• Christmas bookings now being taken. Catering for up to 100 sittings. Coach parties welcome.
• Please call to discuss our function menus. Please mention By The Dart when responding to adverts. To advertise here, please call 01803 835740 or email
mark@bythedart.co.uk
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