In this edition of Chef Chats, the three Michelin star chef shares his wisdom as he arrives in Singapore to promote the MasterChef Dining & Bar Pop-Up restaurant
Despite the moniker bestowed upon him by MasterChef Australia – the “Godfather of modern cooking” – Chef Marco Pierre White made one thing very clear, very quickly – he was no celebrity chef, just a cook. He speaks deliberately with a confidence and irreverence, no doubt honed through his years of being both in the kitchen and the harrowing spotlight of the media. But it might come as a surprise to fans of MasterChef that the fearsome yet fair chef has a more quiet, pensive side that caught us off guard. In town to promote the MasterChef Dining & Bar Pop-up, Chef Marco took some time to have a one-on-one chat with us. We shook off the nerves, and proceeded to enter the mind of one of the most formidable chefs in the world…
Hi Chef Marco, it’s a pleasure to meet you. You’ve probably been asked this a million times, but why did you leave your stove in 1999?
I’m a great believer that a chef is allowed to stray from the stove, but he must stay close to the flame. What was very important for me was to tell Michelin that I was retiring and hanging up my apron. Why? Because this gave me the freedom to do things like the MasterChef pop-up restaurant, MasterChef Australia, or go work around the world. I didn’t want to be one of those chefs who pretended to cook when they weren’t in the kitchen anymore. I come from that world where a chef’s place was behind the stove, and the day you no longer want to be behind it, be honest. For me, it’s about integrity.
That must have been a difficult decision to make though?
I had three options. Option one: Continue working six days a week, spending 80 or 90 hours behind the stove and retaining my status. Option two: Live a lie and pretend to cook when I don’t. Continue to charge high prices, and question my integrity and everything I ever worked for. Or option three: Pluck up the courage to tell Michelin that I’m retiring.
So one day, I came to the conclusion that I was being judged by people who have less knowledge than me. What were three stars from Michelin worth to me? Not very much. And that’s what gave me the confidence to make that phone call and hang up my apron. That’s what gave me the confidence to develop as a human being, and grow emotionally. Inside a kitchen, you become stunted emotionally. The kitchen becomes your world, you become institutionalised. You become quite scared of the outside world.
Did you feel any loss of direction after retiring from cooking?
When I retired from cooking, yes, I was lost. After all, I had lived in a kitchen for the last 22 years of my life. So what did I do? I did exactly the same thing I did when my mother died when I was six – I turned to nature. Mother Nature became my surrogate mother. It’s a world where I felt safe, alone, outside with nature. And slowly, I developed. Yes, I am an introvert, but I’ve taught myself how to navigate through life, and to be able to talk to people like yourself and talk to cameras. I’m not a personality. I’m a cook.
The serenity of nature seems like the complete opposite of the chaos in the kitchen. Where would you say your ‘happy place’ is?
England is my home, but I work outside of England in Europe, the Middle East, America, Australia, and Asia. When I go back to England, I have a farm with an old Victorian house, which I am now developing into a hotel with a farm on the grounds. If I were to go back to England for 30 days, I don’t leave that house for 30 days. The public doesn’t see me, and I’m very private. I stay there.
How do you feel about celebrity chefs who go into the business just for fame and fortune?
There’s nothing wrong with making a fortune. There’s nothing wrong with making a living. You can’t criticise people for making a living in the best way possible. But I don’t come under the celebrity chef category because I don’t have personality. I’m a cook. I’m in a different world. There’s that world, and there’s the world of TV personalities. And the majority of chefs who are on TV have never won a Michelin Star, while I have won three. They’re there for their personality, not their cooking abilities.
Does it then bother you that celebrity chef culture seems to be blooming all over TV today?
The secret to cooking on TV is to make the food look good because no one can eat it. It’s as simple as that. But cooking shows are great. They inspire people to get into cooking, to buy better produce, and to cook better food at home for their families. These are all the positives. Everything has its positives and its negatives. If you don’t understand the weakness of something, you’ll never understand the positives. So always look for the positives. I would still see celebrity chefs as a positive thing – they’ve assisted in bringing the food world to where it is today.
What’s your impression of the Singapore food scene?
The food in Singapore is fantastic! I spend a lot of time here, and I’ve only had one bad meal in Singapore. You can also eat very well in this country for not a lot of money. I go to Asia Grand for dim sum – it’s $30. I cannot eat that well in London for that little. The chicken rice shop in Purvis street? $8 dollars for four pounds of chicken. I can’t eat that well in England for that much either. You can eat fantastic food at any hawker centre for not a lot of money. There aren’t many international cities in the world where you can say that. Singapore is truly one of the world’s great capitals for food.
We recently had the Michelin guide in Singapore and, for the first time, stars were awarded to hawker stalls. How do you feel about this?
In my opinion, I think it’s a PR stunt. It’s not what Michelin represented to me and it’s not what Michelin represented back then. It might be fantastic food, but today, Michelin will give three stars in a restaurant’s first year. They never used to do that. They’ll even give three stars to restaurants where the head chef’s not behind the stove. So they’ve changed. I preferred the old Michelin and what it stood for all those years ago.
I can see that’s something very important for you, for the head chef to be the one behind the stove.
When you go to a three star restaurant, or even a two star one, that’s what you’re paying for. If I’m going to pay a lot of money for a meal, I want that chef behind the stove cooking my dinner. I don’t expect the head chef to cook every dish, because he can’t. But I do expect him to taste every dish, touch it with his fingers, and see it with his eyes. And when the chef is not in the house, the food is never the same.
What advice do you have for aspiring chefs who are starting out today?
Firstly, you’ve got to want to do it, and you’ve got to want to learn. Know your craft because that’s your foundation. Put your career into the hands of the right person, because you’ll be protected by this individual and guided. You must also put your work in the right place. Put yourself in a kitchen where there’s great discipline.
Is there a guiding principle or philosophy you always take to heart when in the kitchen?
Discipline. Without discipline, there’s no consistency. By being disciplined and focused, you will create consistency. And you have to have a dream. Like I tell my little girl, who’s a ballerina, I say, “Mirabelle, do you have a dream?”. She always says. “Yes Daddy”. I then tell her that if she has a dream, she has a duty and a responsibility to herself to make it come true. Don’t expect someone else to make your dreams come true. If you get success in life, that’s your doing. And if you have a dream, you should still be a realist. Make sure it’s within you, and make sure you’re prepared to make the investment on every level.
And to sum up, what has been your proudest moment as a chef?
I suppose, it was the day we won our three stars. It wasn’t me. I was proud of the boys and girls behind me because, without those young men and ladies, I never would have won three stars. They made it possible. I never won three stars; my team won three stars and I was very proud of them. I supposed that was the greatest moment of my life – telling my team that all those years of hard work was being rewarded.
For more details on the MasterChef Dining & Bar Pop-up, check out our feature.