Let There Be White

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Let There Be White

The original celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White, has opened a new restaurant in, erm, Congresbury. Melissa Blease profiles the man who made stock cubes sexy.

Known to older foodies as the original celebrity chef – infamous for his volatile temperament and rock ’n’ roll lifestyle – but equally familiar to a younger generation as the handsome devil at Channel 4’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ hob (or for telling the nation what to do with a Knorr stock cube), Marco Pierre White opened the latest branch of his Steakhouse, Bar and Grill (see also London, Dublin, Chester and, erm, Abu Dhabi) at the Doubletree by Hilton Cadbury House Hotel and Spa in Congresbury earlier this month. But by rights, White should have been residing in a file marked ‘gone but not forgotten’ since he announced his retirement from the kitchen in 1999. Over a decade on, however, the self-styled enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene is such an intrinsic character (the pantomime villain, perhaps?) within the contemporary celebrity chef brigade you’d be forgiven for thinking he’d never been away.

Born in Leeds in 1961, White was the third of four boys born to chef Frank White and his Italian wife Maria-Rosa Gallina. Six years later, Maria gave birth to a fourth son before dying of a brain haemorrhage shortly afterwards – a tragic event that has haunted White to this day. In his early teens, White took a job in the kitchen of a North Yorkshire hotel before heading to London, training under some of Europe’s greatest chefs and eventually opening his first independent venture (Harveys in Wandsworth Common) in 1987. He was awarded his first Michelin star almost immediately, a second in 1988 and a third when he opened The Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the Hyde Park Hotel in the mid-90s: by all accounts (even the more scandalous ones), White was a chef at the top of his game. But in 1999, he turned the heat off entirely and even rescinded his Michelin stars, claiming he was tired of being judged by people who had less knowledge than him. After a spell of introspection away from the spotlight, however, White came back to reclaim his title as the Godfather of Modern Cooking – and his reinvention was, perhaps, his most successful recipe of all.

Today, the White empire encompasses a thriving TV career, solo or part-ownership of several restaurants, lucrative advertising deals, bestselling books and four children (from various marriages). But White maintains that his reincarnation as a TV celebrity chef was based on altruism and not inevitable affluence. “Any parent with a child who might be struggling at school can watch ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ and think this might be the profession for their son or daughter,” he told Bristol Evening Post journalist Mark Taylor recently. “I really like fighting for the working classes – I really do.” He went on to explain a similar philosophy regarding his Steakhouse and Grill venture. “I came from really humble beginnings so I understand the working man – that’s why I like opening steakhouses.”

Marco Pierre White

In keeping with such a mission statement, White’s latest venture offers easy-going classics such as prawn cocktail, fish and chips, liver and bacon and, of course, steaks, on largely locally sourced menus strictly overseen (but not actually cooked by) the great man himself (as White recently explained to the Daily Telegraph’s Mark Palmer, “You can’t be a chef and appear on television all the time; it’s impossible”). Today, White remains as dismissive of fancy dining as he was when he made the decision to roll himself away from the Michelin men. “Chefs paint pictures on plates to hide their lack of technical ability,” White told Observer journalist Lynn Barber. “If most people are honest, they'd prefer to have a corned beef sandwich with some Branston Pickle.” Whether such a dish is on the menu at White’s latest venture is yet to be confirmed.

White bites

Five things you should know about MPW

• MPW trained under legendary chefs including Albert and Michael Roux and Raymond Blanc. He went on to mentor an impressive roster of contemporary kitchen gods including Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Jason Atherton.

• In 1994 (at the age of 33), MPW was the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars.

• Already the current poster boy for Knorr stock cubes and an ambassador for turkey farmer Bernard Matthews, MPW recently joined a line-up that includes Pamela Anderson, JLS and Frank Lampard to promote Walkers Crisps.

• MPW left school without any qualifications, doesn’t have a driving licence and is a staunch supporter of the Conservative party. A heavy smoker, his hobbies include hunting and fishing.

• Those with a salacious appetite for scandal should feast on MPW’s bestselling 2006 autobiography ‘White Slave’ (Orion, £6.95).