Marco Pierre White

Marco Pierre White

Chef, restaurateur, author and TV presenter

https://www.marcopierrewhite.org
After leaving school in Leeds without qualifications, Marco Pierre White decided to train as a chef. He began his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate and later at the Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Arriving in London as a 16-year-old with – in his words – "£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. At 24, he became head chef and joint owner of Harveys, with a kitchen staff that included the young Gordon Ramsay. By the age of 33, Marco Pierre White had risen to become one of the food élite – the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars. During these years, he had working under him some of the the food world’s greatest rising stars, including Heston Blumenthal, Robert Reid, Thierry Busset, Jason Atherton and James Stocks. In front of house, they included Max (Mark) Palmer, one of the few English maître d' of a Michelin 3-star restaurant, Claude Douart, Philippe Messy (the youngest sommelier to gain three Michelin stars) and Chris Jones, unusual in being an English sommelier in a 2-star Michelin French restaurant at the age of 21.

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Features & Stories

Bring on the digital recipe revolution

Bring on the digital recipe revolution

Former chef and restaurateur Chris Lawrence ponders how books by Auguste Escoffier and Harold McGee, written a century apart, have had a profound effect on the way that chefs, recipe writers, and home cooks think about food and how they cook. He argues for more care to be taken in recipe creation – and tells why he welcomes the digital recipe revolution
Behind the Cookbook: Great Chefs of France

Behind the Cookbook: Great Chefs of France

Candida Crewe, daughter of food critic Quentin Crewe, reflects on the life of her father and how he came to pen what many chefs regard as one of the best books on French cuisine ever written, Great Chefs of France.