IT was the very early Eighties when I was contacted by Keith with a request to install a canopy over the entrance doorway to his new restaurant in Chandos Road. The brief was that it should be bright yellow with Floyd's sign written on the front in black. This should attract some attention, I thought, particularly in a conservation area – Keith was forever the rebel!

I duly complied (being the canopy kid at that time) and the bright yellow canopy was installed a week later in time for the grand opening ceremony.

Keith arrived at his new restaurant at 5pm and I asked him if he approved of the new canopy that I had just installed, but he simply said "you haven't installed it yet", and pointed to a very large stainless steel commercial cooker hood with twin extractor fans that was lying dormant at the entrance to the kitchen.

"How can I run a kitchen without the right equipment?" he exclaimed. "I thought you were installing my canopy!"

"Well," I said, "being the canopy kid, I suppose I shall just have to give it a go."

So two hours and 350 screws later, we managed to get the overhead cooker canopy fixed and operational, just in time for the first customers to arrive.

My wife at the time, Caroline, was the first to come and we sat there with Keith discussing at length his latest previous wife and his long lost house on the Tarn Gorge in France, until he decided to cook for us as a thank-you for installing the cooker hood in the kitchen.

Forty-five minutes later, he served us with the most fantastic dish of venison in a cherry brandy sauce with several complimentary bottles of expensive French red wine, and we spent the next couple of hours chatting about France and food and marriages, and I took this as a thank-you for installing the cooker canopy.

I don't believe there were any other customers in the restaurant on that first night and, if my memory serves me, I don't believe I ever got paid by Keith for the entrance canopy.

But none of that matters in the scheme of things. The evening was a pleasure, his talent as a chef was phenomenal and his presence and character were something I will never forget.

Godspeed to one of our country's truly eccentric superstars.

Chris Reason, Artistic Blinds.

I AM very sorry to hear of the death of Keith Floyd. I used to love watching him on TV and I met him twice, once at a book signing in Bristol and again at Heathrow Airport.

I was going through passport control when I heard a familiar voice behind me, I turned and spoke to him rather shyly asking him where he was off to. He replied that he was travelling to Australia to make a cookery programme.

I told him I worked in Debenhams in Bristol and when I worked in the cookshop department I used to sell his cast iron saucepans that he had designed. He laughed when I said that I always advised customers to use a lower heat if cooking with gas, because otherwise the wooden handles would burn if the gas flame was too high!

Ann Harrison, Kingswood, Bristol.