* FAN PAGE ONLY - NOT THE MAN HIMSELF!*
Marco Pierre White (born December 11, 1961) is an English chef and restaurateur. He is renowned by patrons and peers alike for having provided a highly creative and innovative impetus into contemporary international cuisine and is known as much for his quick temper as for his exceptional skills as a chef.
White has been dubbed the first celebrity chef, enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene and the Godfather of modern cooking. Having been awarded three Michelin stars, he has put English cooking on a par with classic haute cuisine.
Marco Pierre White was the third of four boys born to Italian Maria-Rosa Gallina, who had come to Britain to learn English, and chef Frank White, who had struck up a conversation with Maria at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds while he was playing cards.
After marrying in 1958, they lived in a council house in north Leeds, and had sons Graham, Clive and Marco. Six years later, Maria gave birth to a fourth son, Craig Simon. Thirteen days afterwards, she collapsed and was taken back to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, where she died of a brain hemorrhage.
After leaving Allerton High School in Leeds without any qualifications, White decided to train as a chef. He began his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and later at the Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Arriving in London as a 16-year-old with "£7.36, a box of books and a bag of clothes", he began his classical training as a commis under Albert Roux and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche, a period that would lead Albert to describe him as "my little lamb". He continued his training under Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire (now the site of Gordon Ramsay), moving to work in the kitchen of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and Nico Ladenis of Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane. He then moved out on his own, working in the kitchen at the Six Bells public house in the Kings Road with assistant Mario Batali.
By the age of 33, Marco Pierre White had been awarded three Michelin stars, becoming the youngest Briton bestowed with this accolade. (He is sometimes erroneously praised as being the 'youngest chef' ever to receive three Michelin stars). On completion of his training in 1987, White opened Harveys in Wandsworth Common, London (now the site of Chez Bruce), where he won his first Michelin star almost immediately and was awarded his second in 1988, before moving on to become chef-patron of The Restaurant Marco Pierre White in the dining-room at the former Hyde Park Hotel now Mandarin Oriental, (where he won the third Michelin Star) and then moved to the Oak Room at Le Meridien Piccadilly. During these years White had working for him Gordon Ramsay, Eric Chavot (The Capital), Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), Robert Reid, Thierry Busset, Jason Atherton and in front of house Max (Mark) Palmer one of the few English maitre d'hotel of a Michelin 3 star, Claude Douart, Philippe Messy (Youngest Sommelier to gain 3 Michelin Stars) and Chris Jones unusual in being an English Sommelier in a 2 star michelin French restaurant at the age of 21.
Although White worked relentlessly for 17 years to pursue his ambition, he ultimately found that in spite of his accomplishments, recognition and fame, his career did not provide him with adequate returns in his personal life. So in 1999, he gave up his Michelin stars:
"I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself."
During his early career in the kitchen, White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offence at their comments. Similarly, when in the 1980s a city trader asked if he could have a side order of chips with his lunch, White hand-cut and personally cooked the chips but charged the customer £25 for the honour. A young chef at Harveys, who once complained of heat in the kitchen, had the back of his chef's jacket and trousers cut open by White wielding a sharp paring knife.
Although White was the first Briton to be awarded three Michelin stars, he announced his retirement from the kitchen in 1999, cooking his final meal for a paying customer in December at the Oak Room, to develop his portfolio of restaurants through his eponymous White Star Line company. His London portfolio currently comprises Belvedere, Criterion, Drones, L'Escargot, Luciano's, Mirabelle, Quo Vadis and the Frankie's chain of Italian pizzerias in partnership with jockey Frankie Dettori.
White is also dining consultant to cruise line P&O Cruises. His fine dining Mediterranean restaurant, The White Room, is scheduled to be launched on the Ventura in April 2008. The Ventura should also have a Frankie's Bar and Grill on the top deck and White should oversee The Beach House, a restaurant designed specifically to appeal to families.
White has published several books, including White Heat (containing a photograph of a young Gordon Ramsay crying in the Harveys kitchen), an autobiography, White Slave (entitled The Devil in the Kitchen in paperback, as well as in North America), and Wild Food from Land and Sea.
White has acted as a mentor to a number of prominent chefs of the current generation, such as his fellow three-star British recipients Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. In Australia, they have also included: Donovan Cooke and Philippa Sibley formerly of est est est and Ondine, Shannon Bennett of Vue du Monde, Warren Turnbull of Assiette, and Curtis Stone of The Café Royal, Mirabelle and Quo Vadis, among others.
White's recent autobiography includes a picture of Gordon Ramsay in tears, caused by Ramsay making a mistake and White shouting at him. When White was asked about making Ramsay cry, White commented "I didn't make Gordon cry, he chose to cry!" In 2007, Ramsay admitted stealing the reservations book from his own Chelsea restaurant in 1998 and blaming the theft on White to prevent White being appointed as chef in his place.
White appeared in trailers for the 2004 film Layer Cake.
White has a Japanese manservant called Mr Ishii, who chauffeurs him everywhere (as White has never learnt to drive). In his leisure time, White can be found freshwater fishing and game hunting.
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