We live in an era where star chefs have become real celebrities, praised and celebrated. On TV, in the now-inevitable cooking programs, and increasingly popular on the web. Between one dish and another, they won their public’s heart. Their recipes and precious advice are thoroughly followed and replicated. Not only by the competitors’ chefs in their challenging program, but also from very loyal followers who do not miss a single social post.
It is ordinary, nowadays, to be flooded with tutorials and well-known cooking shows and formats. Marco Pierre White has been the pioneer of the chef-star-movement. He was the first chef-celebrity to cook on TV, as well as the énfant terrible of the scene. He is now one of the most famous British television chefs and is considered among the founders of modern cuisine.
Born in Leeds, he followed in his father’s footsteps as a professional chef and grew up eating his Italian mother’s delicacies. Those aspects influenced his career a lot, leading him to create a perfect mix between Italian and British cuisine. At sixteen, after leaving school, he moved to London, where he began his real career as a chef, working for Albert and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche.
He has kept training his skills with well-known chefs such as Pierre Koffman, Raymond Blanc and Nico Ladenis. In 1987, he decided to open his own Harvey restaurant in Wandsworth Common, earning his first Michelin star. In this very restaurant, Gordon Ramsay worked as an apprentice. The following year, Marco Pierre White won his second Michelin star. Happy and satisfied with this important milestone, he decided to open the Marco Pierre White restaurant at the former Hyde Park hotel, where he won the third star, then moved to the Oak Room at Le Méridien Piccadilly hotel.
At the age of thirty-three, Marco Pierre White became the first British chef to achieve three stars, as well as being one of the youngest chefs who in such a short time managed to win this prestigious award. In 1999, he decided to retire from the kitchen while remaining active in the field of catering with essential projects of far-reaching scope.
Since then, we often see him on TV as a presenter and judge of Hell’s Kitchen in some editions. He was an acclaimed guest at MasterChef Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and, in 2019, in Italy. On Instagram is a star! After all, it could not be otherwise; thousands of followers engaged in every social movement. White is a true legend of world gastronomy, a master of Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, and still heads several restaurants in London and New York. He is undoubtedly a chef with a strong personality, original and irreverent. His career has been a lightning bolt that left his mark, a real landmark in the cuisine world.
Enjoy even more @ Marco Pierre White
Article edited by Stefania Abbruzzo