INTERVIEW: BBC celebrity chef Floyd to do TV series on Pakistani cuisine - Page 3
© Mahim Maher and Anjum Nida Rahman
"I'm serious about food and while food is not a science, it is an art," he said. "You have to know the chemistry of food and the physics of cooking. Like a good plasterer, for example, you have to know how much water to add for the right consistency. Some people end up with a lavatory block and others a cathedral." He is scornful of certain new opportunist chefs who he says would even go to the "opening of an envelope and are just interested on being on TV".
He said he particularly admires Chef Albert Roux of Le Gavroche in London. Roux tests a new chef by simply asking him or her to fry an egg, Mr Floyd explained. "You can tell if someone has the talent by their attitude. You get people who are confident and just say 'oh yeah I can fry an egg' and just slap it onto the pan."
He calls himself a traditionalist. "Trends for tends sake leave me cold," he said. "There was a recent trend for tall food, which you had to dismantle before you ate it or it would disintegrate and now there is the trend for fusion food." But Mr Floyd isn't interested in these antics. "My idea is not to improve upon Pakistani food but to show what it is like, what little shops do, what people cook in their homes."
His is famous for his unique cooking style that uses handfuls instead of grams and for his bottomless wineglass. "I have dedicated my liver to my career," he said. Is Floyd fussy about his food and will the local chefs measure up? "As long as my food has been well prepared I really don't mind," he said. But he is particular at Christmas when he likes a roast goose. He is also fond of lobster and he won't mind if it is served according to a French recipe or done the English way or even stir-fried with spices.
"I had no idea how popular I was in Pakistan," he said. "I am shocked at the response I have gotten here." He was rather surprised when a 12-year old boy came up to him during breakfast and said he watched his shows. Viewers here would also be familiar with the mysterious and mythical Hector he always mentions in his programmes. "Hector does exist, he is someone I knew a long time ago," he said. "I was living on a yacht with no money and Hector was an old Etonian teaching English to children from a Swedish family." At that time Mr Floyd was eking out a pittance from cooking at a restaurant and gave what little he earned to Hector to play backgammon in the evenings. The two men lived off whatever they earned.
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