Sadly my hero Keith Floyd passed away this week and will be greatly missed by the millions of viewers like me who have been inspired and encouraged by, in my opinion, the greatest TV chef of all time.

I remember as a young child watching Fanny Craddock cooking her fancy European dishes using ingredients that were inaccessible to the average family living in the post war austerity of  fifties and early sixties Britain but she didn’t make me feel like cooking.  I remember as a teenager watching “The Galloping Gourmet” Graham Kerr and enjoyed seeing the expressions of extacy on his face as he tasted his own cooking.  This made me want to eat good food but his slight campness (which would go unnoticed these days) didn’t exactly inspire me to take up the spatula.

Then in the seventies, when I was a young adult, Keith Floyd burst onto the scene and I was hooked and to this day, like so many others, a glass of wine is as essential a cooking aid as is a sharp knife (except for breakfast of course).  Keith made cooking a fun and joyous occasion without the rigidness of traditional recipe books – “a dollop of cream, a splash of cider vinegar, a handful of chives and a good slosh of red wine”.  This made cooking intuitive and helped me develop a sensitive and discriminating palate.  This was jazz to Fanny’s chamber music!

If there can be a silver lining to this tragic loss then it is that we are likely to see more of Keith on the TV in the near future.  For those of you who are new to cooking I urge you to get onto Youtube and check out Keith in full flight.  You may recognise the influence he has had on that other great TV chef Jamie Oliver with his “bish-bosh” attitude towards measuring ingredients and the simplicity and accessibility of his recipes (but you need to slurp a bit more of the old vino my son!).

Here is a video of what is possibly the last interview with Keith and in typical style there are no holds barred, political correctness goes out the window and he takes no prisoners so if you are of an overly polite or sensitive disposition then cover your ears!!!!

Goodbye old friend – without you Crispy Chris would have been just plain old Chris.

CHEERS!!!!!

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Like the vast majority of the population of the first world I have long believed that cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease in the world.  Why? Because the doctors, the media, the advertisers, the drugs companies and the people around me say so.  So, in an effort to live longer I have moved to semi-skimmed milk, tried to leave the fat on lamb chops and rump steak (to my mind the best part taste-wise) on the side of my plate, have avoided eating more than two eggs in a day and use mostly olive oil in my cooking etc,.

This has made my life not quite as joyful as it could have been so you can imagine my elation when I found out that the whole cholesterol thing is a complete myth and we (including the majority of health professionals) have all been conned for years and years. Why?  Because the pharmaseutical industry makes billions of pounds a year selling statins designed to reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, to the NHS and global equivalents.

Thanks to the work of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick the whole con has been exposed and the true cause of heart disease has been revealed in his book entitled “The Great Cholesterol Con” available from Amazon and the usual outlets.  To me, a confirmed foodie, it is the best news I have heard in a long time. I now eat whatever fatty foods I like without worrying about my heart or feeling guilty and I haven’t even put on any weight. 

In a nutshell, the cholesterol from the food we eat that finds its way into our bloodstream has no bearing on heart disease whatsoever – none – zero- zilch!  In fact women over 50yrs old shouldn’t be without it and should not take statins full stop according to the good doctor’s research. So what is heart disease and what causes it?  If you thought it was “the furring up of your arteries” then you would  be wrong.  I don’t wish to do Dr. Kendrick out of book sales.  This man has stuck his head over the parapet (while the majority of the medical profession keep their heads down and get on with earning a living without rocking the boat – as if they had time anyway) and he deserves his dues.

So, I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of “the Great Cholesterol Con” and find out the truth for yourself.  I would be very grateful if you would share your thoughts on this or any other subject with me and the other readers by posting a comment on this site.  If you really can’t get a copy of the book then email me and I will tell you what causes heart disease or check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPYaVcXo1I 

Of course there is a whole army of people and organisations with a vested interest in keeping us in the dark and you can see they are running scared when you read their scathing attacks on Dr. Kendrick - just check them out on the web for yourself.  All I can say is life for me is sweeter thanks to Dr. Kendrick.  I hope yours will be.

I wish you a long life and very good health.

Chris Eadon.

P.S.  The book has good news for people who like a drink too!

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Weekly curry ‘may fight dementia’

The key ingredient appears to be turmeric Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a US researcher suggests. The key ingredient is curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric. Curcumin appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques – thought to cause dementia – in the brain. But the theory, presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual meeting, has been given a lukewarm reception by UK experts.   If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating curry regularly could help prevent dementia Professor Murali Doraiswamy Duke University Amyloid plaques, along with tangles of nerve fibres, are thought to contribute to the degradation of the wiring in brain cells, eventually leading to symptoms of dementia. Professor Murali Doraiswamy, of Duke University in North Carolina, said there was evidence that people who eat a curry meal two or three times a week have a lower risk of dementia. He said researchers were testing the impact of higher doses – the equivalent of going on a curry spree for a week – to see if they could maximise the effect. Animal studies Professor Doraiswamy told the meeting: “There is very solid evidence that curcumin binds to plaques, and basic research on animals engineered to produce human amyloid plaques has shown benefits.” “You can modify a mouse so that at about 12 months its brain is riddled with plaques. “If you feed this rat a curcumin-rich diet it dissolves these plaques. The same diet prevented younger mice from forming new plaques. “The next step is to test curcumin on human amyloid plaque formation using newer brain scans and there are plans for that.” Professor Doraiswamy said a clinical trial was now underway at the University of California, Los Angeles, to test curcumin’s effects in Alzheimer’s patients. He said research had also examined turmeric’s therapeutic potential for treating conditions such as cancer and arthritis. Good diet He stressed that eating a curry could not counter-balance the increased risk of dementia associated with a poor diet.   Indian communities that regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low incidence of Alzheimer’s disease but we don’t yet know why Dr Susanne Sorensen Alzheimer’s Society However, he said: “If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating curry regularly could help prevent dementia.” Professor Doraiswamy predicted it might be possible to develop a curry pill which had the same therapeutic effect. However, Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, stressed that people would need to eat a lot of curry – over 100g of turmeric curry powder – to get a clinical dose of curcumin. She said: “Professor Doraiswamy’s unpublished research applies only to animal models; his hypothesis has not been confirmed in human clinical trials. “We look forward to the results of the human curcumin trial at UCLA.” Dr Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Indian communities that regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low incidence of Alzheimer’s disease but we don’t yet know why. “Alzheimer’s Society is keen to explore the potential benefits of curcumin in protecting the brain and we are conducting our own research into this area. “A cheap, accessible and safe treatment could transform the quality of life of thousands of people with the condition.”

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BURMESE FOOD

Have you ever wondered why there are no Burmese restaurants around? I guess not. Until the killing of Buddist Monks during the civil unrest in 2008 put Burma (now Myanmar) into the media spotlight, a lot of younger people wouldn’t have known the country existed.  After all, it’s not a known holiday destination and doesn’t generally hit the headlines.

It is a combination of factors that has prevented Burmese cuisine from being brought to the rest of the world unlike its three neighbours India, China and Thailand (even my little village of Bottisham has an Indian restaurant and a Chinese takeaway that also does Thai dishes!). 

Firstly, Burma is in the grip of a brutal military regime which for many years has closed its borders and taken on pariah status due to its appalling human rights record.  This has meant that the Burmese people have not been able to enjoy international travel and the widespread poverty resulting from the gross mismanagement of the country’s affairs means that international travel would be unaffordable to all but the privelaged few.  So, there is no one to open and run Burmese restaurants.

Secondly, assuming you can find Burmese chefs outside Burma (and there are plenty living as refugees in Bangladesh and Thailand) how would they get over here and how and why would they set up their own restaurant?  It’s a daunting enough challenge to open a restaurant in England even if you’ve lived all your life here so it would be especially difficult with an unfamiliar cuisine.

Thirdly, because buddism plays such a role in Burmese culture, the Burmese people generally do not pursue money the same way we do in western society.  I know this is a sweeping generalisation but I have heard the Burmese people being described as “unambitious due to their Buddist values”.

Having said that, I do know of the only Burmese Restaurant in Europe and that is at 444 Edgeware Road in West London and is called the Mandalay ( www.mandalayway.com ).  On the couple of occasions I have visited there on the off-chance, they were fully booked so I have never eaten there although members of my family have and they say the food is great.  I am pleased to say that a Burmese food shop has recently opened in Wood Green in North London called Mum’s House.  You can check them out at www.mumhouse.com .

So, once a year I put on a Burmese Dining Experience on behalf of the Cambridge Food and Drink Festival ( www.camfoodfest.co.uk ) to give people the chance to taste this wonderful cooking style for the first time.  It is always successful and now that I have Cook’s Barn I plan to turn it into a Burmese Restaurant for one evening a month so if you’re interested in trying it then drop me a line at chris@stonetime.co.uk and I will add you to the growing list of aventurous diners.

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