Marco Pierre White has launched a blistering attack on MasterChef, dismissing it as a reality show that serves cold food and calling it “fantasy” and “food porn”.
“Number one it is a reality show. Number two, when it comes to the tasting the food is three, four hours old. It's cold food. It is a TV show, don't take it seriously. It is not real. It is fantasy. If it makes you want to cook then that is all that matters. It’s food porn,” he said.
Rockstar Chef series on BBC
The comments come as Britain's first celebrity chef prepares to star in a new three-part BBC series, The Rise of the Rockstar Chef, later this year. Set against the ‘Cool Britannia’ backdrop of the nineties, it will chart his colourful career and also feature Gordon Ramsay, his former apprentice, and Heston Blumenthal.
He is also included in the new paperback Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears: The Story of the 1990s Restaurant Revolution by Andrew Turvil. The programme will delve into the friendships, fights and feuds that characterised the three chefs’ rise to fame.
From Harveys to three Michelin stars
A frequent guest judge on MasterChef Australia, Marco recalled being less than truthful about his verdicts on the show. “I remember when I was on I looked at the plate, and I don't like to criticise, so I said ‘that little bit is so nice’. I had to go and see my priest afterwards.”
Marco opened his first restaurant, Harveys, on Wandsworth Common, London, in 1987, earning his first Michelin star almost immediately and a second a year later. He arrived in London with just £7.36, a box of books and a bag of clothes, after classical training as a commis chef with Albert and Michel Roux at the two-Michelin starred La Gavroche.
His mentors also included Raymond Blanc, Pierre Koffmann and the late Nico Ladenis, before he became an assistant at the Six Bells pub on Chelsea’s famous King’s Road under American chef Mario Batali. After six years at Harveys, where he first met Gordon Ramsay, he became chef-patron of The Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the Hyde Park Hotel. There, he became the youngest chef to achieve three Michelin stars, before moving to the Oak Room at London’s Le Meridien Piccadilly Hotel.
No regrets over Michelin stars
After a 17-year pursuit of culinary perfection, Marco shocked the gastronomy world in 1999 by turning his back on his career and returning his Michelin stars. Twenty-seven years later, he has no regrets.
“They [Michelin] know more about tyres than they do about food. Today, I go to Michelin starred restaurants and they confuse me. If you go to a two star or a three star you are told what you are eating. The romance has gone. In my opinion, they have turned gastronomy into a canapé party,” he said.
Drink, drugs and discipline
Marco also believes there is too little discipline and an excess of drink and drugs in kitchens. “I did not start drinking alcohol until I was 41. I have never taken a drug in my life. Today, there's drugs and drink. I don't think it is in the world of gastronomy [fine dining] but I think it is everywhere. It is pretty sad, the reality of this,” he says.
He says Gordon Ramsay's expletive-filled rants are tame compared with his own early experiences. “If I think what my head chef used to call me...that is another conversation. But you know, a good b*****king did not do anybody any harm. It gave me backbone. It gave me a spine. In that world you were never late, you never called in sick and you would learn. Today, people call in sick and people look at their watch. I was knocked down and had things thrown at me! I am glad I was b*****ked.”
TV drama is fluff
Marco’s famous temper flares when he is compared to Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White in American TV drama The Bear, or Bradley Cooper in the 2015 film Burnt.
“Let me tell you, The Bear and The Burnt is fluff. Don't believe it. It is way worse!” he said. Asked by now-disgraced Harvey Weinstein to coach Bradley Cooper for the part, Marco refused. “It is manufactured drama.”
The Knorr secret
While he no longer cooks professionally, Marco remains forthright about cuisine. His surprising secret weapon is Knorr stock cubes.
“Knorr stock cubes are life changing. If it had not been for Knorr I would not have won three stars in Michelin. Whenever I cook something, I always use a little bit of Knorr instead of stock. Why? When I was a boy of 17 I was told ‘it does not matter how you create the desired effect, as long as you create the desired effect’. My customers don't care whether it is salt or Knorr as long as it tastes delicious.”
The Rise of the Rockstar Chef airs on BBC1 later this year. Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears by Andrew Turvil is out now, priced £10.99, published by Elliott & Thompson.
