TV chef Si King has opened up about the challenging times he’s faced since the loss of his Hairy Bikers co-star and friend of 30 years, Dave Myers, who passed away at the age of 66 in February. Myers had shared his cancer diagnosis in 2022 and was undergoing chemotherapy treatments.
In a heartfelt piece for The Sunday Times, King, 57, confessed: “I’ll be honest with you, the past few months have been a struggle. More than once I was on the verge of jumping on my bike and heading into the sunset.
“Not tell anyone where I was going. Just clear off and never come back. Other times I was raging. Raging at that bloody disease, at God and anything else I could think of. People were asking what I was going to do next.
“The answer is I am going to take some time to reflect on the life I had with my best mate, and think about moving forwards. Which is exactly what Dave would have wanted. Move forward, don’t dwell on the past.”
He told how he has been working on a new collection of classic Hairy Bikers recipes and hinted at upcoming projects, “there are a few new projects on the horizon”. However, he remains content with simpler pleasures, “But even if I end up doing nothing more than making bacon sarnies and playing a few gigs with my band, that’s fine by me. Happy days! “, he remarked.
He continued: “I keep getting asked if the Hairy Bikers have left a legacy. Yeah, I’d like to think we made a little bit of difference, here and there.
“Just two regular blokes, having a go at beef rendang or apple pie. Hopefully we caught the attention of people who didn’t normally watch swanky cooking programmes on telly.”
He added: “Overweight, scruffy, working-class northerners don’t often get presented with an opportunity like the Hairy Bikers. It was a beautiful, magical thing and I’ll miss it. I’ll miss him. But there is a future for me, and I’m excited for what’s coming next.”
The pair first crossed paths in 1992 and their bond “was sealed over a tandoori chicken masala, four poppadoms and three pints of lager”. They launched themselves into the public eye with The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook in 2004 which was a mixture of cooking show and travel with the pair riding the length of Portugal in the first episode.
In June, thousands of motorcyclists travelled from London to Myers’ hometown in Barrow-in-Furness as part of the first Dave Day, a memorial motorcycle ride in honour of the TV chef.