HE’S the godfather of modern cooking who strikes fear into the hearts of those trying to impress him, and he’s coming back to Aussie TV.
The world’s first true celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White, is set to return to MasterChef this Sunday night.
We all know he’s a perfectionist in the kitchen, but here are some things you might not know about the 53-year-old:
Protégés: Marco Pierre White (MPW) has trained such celebrity chefs as Curtis Stone, Shannon Bennett and his most famous protégé, Gordon Ramsay.
But the two chefs, MPW and Ramsay, don’t exactly get on.
They’ve been feuding for the past 15 years, with MPW telling The Telegraph in 2006, “I will never speak to him again”.
“I gave him his first break in the business and I believe strongly in being loyal to people who have helped you. Several things happened that I found completely unacceptable.”
One of those “things” was when Ramsay rocked up to MPW’s wedding in 2000 with a camera crew in tow, without asking for permission.
“That is disgusting behaviour, isn’t it?” said MPW.
“Is that the correct way to treat a so-called friend? I don’t think so.”
Marco Pierre White with assistant chef Gordon Ramsay at Harveys restaurant in 1989. Source: Getty Images
Quitting the kitchen: Six years after receiving his third Michelin star (the highest honour for a chef), MPW made the shocking decision to retire as a chef in 1999.
“Because I’d won my three stars at 33 and I felt, ‘Oh, is that it?’” said MPW to The Guardian in 2007.
“When you start, you’re always pushing, always chasing, wanting to do better and better, but once you get to that level, it becomes very systematic. And I just thought: I’m not happy.
“I thought that by winning three stars I would be happy, I thought I’d be accepted. But I was almost in a worse position. Because when you’re a one-star chef, your mentors don’t feel threatened by you; even when you’re a two-star chef they don’t, because they’re still top of their tree and they think ‘my boy Marco’ — because remember, I was totally homegrown, I never went to France.
“And then when I won three stars, they’d all started to crumble, or got bored with the stove, and what they couldn’t cope with was that Marco was now the boss in their world. And then I saw the knives come in behind me and I started getting disillusioned with my whole world.”
MPW designed the menu for some P & O cruise ships, such as the Britannia, which the Queen toured recently. Source:Getty Images
Passenger: MPW doesn’t have a driver’s licence. Never has. Never will. Instead, he has his own driver.
For more than 15 years, his personal assistant and chauffeur was an impeccably dressed Japanese man called Mr Ishii, who recently retired.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met a finer man than Mr. Ishii,” said MPW to RTÉ in 2011.
“He has such integrity and such a beautiful philosophy on life.”
Movie: MPW’s life could soon be the subject of a Hollywood film. Ridley Scott bought the rights to the chef’s autobiography, The Devil In The Kitchen, and Michael Fassbender has reportedly been offered the starring role.
“He’s a wonderful actor and quite extraordinary,” said MPW to the Daily Mail last year.
”We had dinner and he was incredibly cool. He just oozed charisma. He has a magnetic energy and I would love him to play me. He has that fire inside his belly that I understand.
“It’s a great privilege to have met him and to be working with Ridley. I’m just a cook, a Yorkshire boy from humble beginnings, so to have a movie made about my life is pretty incredible.”
Michael Fassbender could play MPW in a film about the chef’s life. Source: Getty Images
Expensive chips: Back in 1995, when working at the Hyde Park Hotel, a fussy customer requested some chips to be served with his meal, despite the fact they weren’t on the menu.
MPW, eager to please, hand cut and cooked the chips himself and then charged the customer 25 pounds ($52 Aussie dollars going by today’s exchange rate) for them.
“I’d won three stars, someone was trying to be a jack the lad and flash city boy. I said to the maitre d’, ‘Not a problem, we’ll charge him accordingly,’” said MPW toThe Australian.
Family man: MPW has four kids from his three failed marriages, and considers his offspring to be his greatest achievement.
“I’ve learned more about myself through my children than any other experiences,” he said to The Guardian earlier this year.
“By looking at them and watching them grow, you start to understand yourself.”
His 20-year-old son, Marco Pierre White Jr, is a professional model who is starting to make a name for himself in the fashion world.
Father and son. Source: Instagram
Great hair huh? Source: Instagram
Catch Marco Pierre White on MasterChef this Sunday, July 12 at 7.30pm on Ten
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