He made history as the youngest chef to ever win three Michelin stars but is perhaps even more celebrated for having given them back. Rockstar, Enfant Terrible, and the first-ever ‘celebrity chef’ are all titles bestowed upon him, which he vehemently rejects. Anthony Bourdain praised him for having changed gastronomy forever, and he once made his then-unknown apprentice, Gordon Ramsay, cry. After decades of genius both in and out of the kitchen, Marco Pierre White has learnt a few things.
Gastronomy is the best form of therapy any misfit could ever have, because you don’t have any time to think about being depressed, do you?
Cooking is a philosophy, not a recipe. Unless it’s pastry, which in that case it is chemistry. Once you learn the principles of how to work with something, then life becomes easy.
That black and white photo of me with the long hair and cigarette in White Heat is iconic and changed the way the public saw chefs. The photo happens to be of me, but I don’t see myself when I look at it. I see my kids. At the time, chefs were still viewed as men with big tall hats, and suddenly they have this lunatic who’s working a hundred hours a week. In comes the great Bob Carlos Clark who takes that photo, and the rest is history.
If I had been seduced by the cameras, maybe I would have strayed. I let the reporters and TV companies into my kitchen once. They tried to provoke me and it worked because I was young, but it was the best thing that ever happened because after that I never let them into my kitchen again.
I had a defining moment at 32 years old. From the age of six to 16, my father had programmed me to be a certain person, a very hard person. Then one day a voice in my head started asking me: ‘Marco, who is your mother?’ By dissecting each individual memory of her, I realised not who she was, but who I was. Knowing that changed my entire approach to food overnight. It became very simple and shortly after, I won three Michelin stars.
Winning three Michelin stars is exciting, defending them is rather boring. And that’s why so many three star chefs aren’t in their kitchen—because it’s boring.
If you’re given an award by people who don’t have your abilities, then what is the point of that award? After I won my three stars, I realised I was being judged by people with less knowledge than me. What are three stars worth if the people who gave them to me know less than me? To keep them would be living a lie, so I gave them back.
Achieving massive success is very lonely. You get very lost. Depressed. And what you discover is that everyone gets jealous of you.
Some people go and see their bank manager and act as if they’ve got an appointment with the pope. They measure success in terms of wealth. How shallow.
If something lasts too long, you tend to take advantage of it. You don’t appreciate it. You need to let go of it, enjoy it from a distance, and let someone else have it.
Romance is the only thing that never dates. I’m a great believer that the evening is about the guest, not the chef, and that’s not the case with modern restaurants anymore. A beautiful restaurant should be like a beautiful woman, her beauty should intimidate you, but the excitement dissolves your fears.
Success is born out of arrogance, but greatness is born out of humility. If you’re honest enough and you accept yourself for who and what you are, then you can finally realise your true potential as a human being, whatever that might be.
You can’t knock McDonald’s, can you? Look at things for what they are, not for what you want them to be. The worst thing about my industry is the snobbery. Never allow the obvious to blind you.
