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David “Dave” Myers, one half of the Furry Bikers, has died aged 66, based on based on a press release on social media from his co-star Simon “Si” King.
The 2 have been cooking collectively, writing recipes and filming TV exhibits since their 2004 debut, The Furry Bikers’ Cookbook.
King mentioned he “will miss him day by day and the bond and friendship we shared over half a lifetime” as he introduced Myers’ demise on social media. Myers had been residing with an undisclosed kind of most cancers for the previous couple of years.
With over 25 cookbooks to their title, the Furry Bikers have made a singular imprint on the world of British meals – and Lancashire-born Myers had an enormous hand in that.
Travelling the world on their motorbikes
Myers and King met whereas engaged on the set of a Catherine Cookson TV miniseries – Myers was a make-up artist who specialised in prosthetics, and King was a location supervisor – and the 2 bonded over their love of bikes and meals.
And so the Furry Bikers was born – a brand new kind of travelogue present, the place the duo would journey round on their bikes, sampling the native delicacies and cooking their very own dishes.
Whereas they did go international – their first-ever sequence noticed Myers and King going from Namibia to Transylvania, they usually’ve since lined Mississippi, Tokyo, Mexico and extra – they had been arguably at their greatest shining a highlight on the UK.
As early as 2007, within the particular episode “The Furry Bikers Come House”, this has been a trademark of their exhibits – travelling to locations in Britain that you just won’t usually see on meals TV exhibits, highlighting regional delicacies.
Their most up-to-date present, February’s BBC Two sequence The Furry Bikers Go West, took Myers and King west throughout the UK, from Scotland to Devon – even returning to Myers’ authentic house of Lancashire. Alongside the best way, they cooked up dishes like hen Balmoral with truffle mash, lamb chop pakoras and Lancashire butter and potato pie.
Cooking up consolation meals
The Furry Bikers made a reputation for themselves with easy, flavoursome meals, discovering recognition with easy-to-make dishes that put consolation at its core.
Their culinary influences had been worldwide, picked up from their travels overseas – they’ve devoted cookbooks to Mediterranean delicacies, curries and extra – however once you consider their cooking fashion, it’s all about British classics and luxury meals.
In actual fact, their 2023 cookbook, The Furry Bikers’ Final Consolation Meals, was about simply this. From beef and barley stew to sausage rolls, this was traditional fare from Myers and King – with the odd worldwide flavour, like chipotle prawn tacos or Szechuan lamb bao buns.
Making wholesome consuming easy
In 2012, Myers and King launched their first diet-focused cookbook and accompanying TV present, The Furry Dieters: How To Love Meals And Lose Weight.
This marked a brand new period for the duo, with wholesome meals on the centre. It was extraordinarily private for the pair, who earlier than overhauling their very own consuming habits had been each on treatment for points linked with life-style.
However it wasn’t about restriction – they stayed true to their cooking fashion, albeit with a number of wholesome swaps. Recipes included lasagne made with sheets of leek as an alternative of pasta, beans on toast with parma ham as an alternative of bacon, and for the TV sequence, the duo even swapped out their motorbikes for bicycles to assist them get extra train.
The guide bought phenomenally properly – and in February 2014, writer royalties physique Public Lending Rights (PLR) named it the most-borrowed non-fiction title in UK libraries.
It spawned a sequence of health-related books, even one devoted purely to vegetarian meals. Well being and wellbeing books and TV exhibits have traditionally tended to focus on ladies, so the Furry Bikers’ success might be credited to broadening out this scope and discovering new audiences.
