Gary Rhodes, distinctive for his spiky hair and passion for British cuisine, was one of a new breed of TV celebrity chefs, rising to prominence in the 1990s alongside Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Ainsley Harriott and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.Rhodes, who has died suddenly aged 59, was among the first to make cookery the new rock’n’roll, marking a progression from traditional television chefs such as Fanny Cradock, who imparted recipes while dressed in a ball gown, and Delia Smith, whose style was down-to-earth, no nonsense cooking.“Traditional” was a firm favourite in Rhodes’s cooking, though. For his early signature TV series on the BBC, Rhodes Around Britain (1994), More Rhodes Around Britain (1995) and Open Rhodes (1996), he went in search of native dishes that had fallen out of favour, updating classics such as Lancashire hotpot. He also demonstrated how to make veggie sausage rolls.