TRIBUTES TO CHEF KRIS
TRIBUTES have been paid to a dedicated chef and much-loved family man who died suddenly while cycling to work.
Father-of-two Kristian Ley Roberts, 38, was found unconscious on the A487 at Minfordd, near Porthmadog, at around 6.30am on Saturday.
Despite efforts by passing motorists, paramedics and police officers to revive him at the scene near his workplace in Portmeirion, he was later pronounced dead.
While the cause of Mr Roberts’ death has yet to be established, there are no apparent suspicious circumstances.
His Patagonian-born wife Erica and parents Stanley and Gaynor Roberts thanked family, friends and locals for their “unbelievable” support towards them and his two young children, six year-old Inti Quimey and two year-old an Merni Ley.
Mr Roberts, a retired PE teacher at Ysgol Eifionydd, Porthmadog, said: “He died of natural causes and they’re still doing investigations.
“There was not a scratch on him nor on his bike. Evidently what happened to him was going to happen from what we can gather. Police ruled out a hit and run.”
Mr Roberts said his son, of Isgraig, Tremadog, had just celebrated his birthday on September 10. He leaves a brother, Tony, who is also a chef at Portmeirion, and sister, Nina, as well as two step-brothers, Tristan and David.
Mr Roberts added: “He had two things in his life – his family and his work were everything to him.
“He spent 20 years in Portmeirion as a pastry chef – working 12 hours a day would be nothing to him – if a job needed doing he’d do it until it’s finished.”
Mrs Roberts described her son, who played football for Porthmadog FC’s youth set-up, as a “very private person”.
His widow Erica Edwards Roberts said the tragedy came as a shock. “He was a really healthy man,” she added.
“We had just come back from a lovely family holiday in Costa Brava and he had never complained of anything with his heart or anything else.”
Erica met Kristian after coming to the area from Patagonia to improve her Welsh at Coleg Harlech. While a student she worked as a waitress at Portmeirion’s Castell Deudraeth restaurant, where she met Mr Roberts.
“The first person I met was Kristian,” she added. “He fell in love with me. He told everyone he was going to marry me. He is, and will be, the love my life.”
The couple married at St John’s Church, Porthmadog, on July 23 2005.
He was so well-thought of in Erica’s home country that, as a regular visitor to Trelew, Mr Roberts was once asked to participate as one of the three kings in a festival parade, an honour that “tickled” him according to his father.