Marco Pierre White talks food, fame and why he hates being called a 'celebrity chef'

the truth is I never wanted to be a chef and that's me being brutally honest but I was born into a working-class family my father was a chef my grandfather was a chef my uncle was a chef my brother started out as chess and in those days in the 70s when you were born into humble beginnings you tended to follow your father's footsteps my dream became a very simple dream three stars in Michelin some five had knives and forks I wanted to replicate the greatest restaurants in France very few restaurants happened many years later I won 3,000 mission but I had four black knives and forks and the next three years I worked hard in the room in the front of the house in the 1998 guide we want flu cells it's five add knives and forks I'd realized my dream the dream I'd had since I was 17 years old winning freestyle was a very exciting journey and maybe the most exciting journey of any young Chefs life and at the time I didn't realize but they were just stepping stones to me discovering myself as I don't need those valves demarco anymore when I was young they were me they were my personality that was my foundation and I don't like the label of being classed as a celebrity chef because in my opinion celebrities tend to be celebrities of their personality because of their ability to project on screen I'm not very good at projecting on screen I'm just a cook I'm not a celebrity and most chefs on TV have never won through self omission never mind winning one star so they're there for that personality not their abilities as a cook do I have a favorite food memory yeah I have a lot with my mother I was young when one of the most magical moments was when I was avoiding Italy watching them harvest the figs and this farmer brought my mother some figs remember my mother Terry went open and watching them bleed their milk and visualizing that paint filling and my mother giving it to me I like the taste I didn't like the stickiness at the milk of the six I didn't like the texture in my home and then I cast my mind back my mother's favorite biscuit was thing rolls which are today my favorite biscuit my favorite is we have a little concept called badly no boggle Nino is the name of the village from where my mother was from and I died in there yesterday when in Swindon and it was deliciously simple and very busy and I just thought it was amazing to see seeing families sort of sitting down eating illicit Pete sausage just a delicious lasagna or a cannelloni and I just thought to myself you know something I'm much happier doing that making food accessible within nice environments and enriching people's lives rather than cooking at that freestyle level where you cook the strangers a story is way more important than a recipe can confuse you the story can inspire and that's why it's all about the stories because it's those stories which inspire us to go and achieve what we have to achieve in life it's those stories but makers dream and success is born out of dreams look at food what it is not what you want it to be let's not forget mother nature she's the true artist where does the cooks

Channel: Weekend Argus - Independent Newspapers

Views: 1,628,418

Keywords: Weekend Argus, The Good Weekend, Marco Pierre White, Good Food and Wine Show, Cape Town

Id: lq3ijRKz6mM

Length: 4min 11sec (251 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 03 2017