‘I’d like to go on an anonymous India tour...’: Marco Pierre White

In the 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, Marco Pierre White saw, “sadness and beauty”. In an interview a couple of years ago, talking about what place he’d like to visit next, the British chef and the Godfather of modern cooking had mentioned India. “I’d like to spend at least a month there,” he’d said. Ask him now and he can’t explain the fascination. “I made that statement in an interview eight years ago, and that feeling’s been in me since beyond then,” he says. 

Now that he’s finally here, he’s yet to process the visual and the emotional impact of the country, “It’s enormous, like a jigsaw puzzle. It just gets larger and larger. What’s important is to see things as how they are and not how one would like them to be.” So, a chef and a philosopher then? “I don’t know if I am any of those,” he wonders aloud. After a pause, he adds, “I suppose, I’m an explorer now. I like to be exposed to things for the very first time.”

He’s in Mumbai for the gourmet food festival, World On A Plate, for its fourth season, but what he’d really like to do, is go on an anonymous India tour! And maybe wear a kurta? And pat comes the reply, “Exactly! Kurta, sandals, grow a beard, change my accent etc.” He’s too well-known a face, I argue. “Oh, two weeks in the sun and I will be nice and tanned!” he guffaws. 

The word ‘charming’ has probably never been used to describe Marco, but that’s what seems to be in play here. There’s no hint of the man, who’s been labelled as the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene and the bad boy of cooking. He’s the guy who had once famously slashed the jacket and trousers of a chef who complained of the heat in the kitchen. “He stills works for me today, interesting isn’t it?” he chuckles. But the reputation, he says, is mostly a product of exaggeration and ignorance. 

The monikers, he believes, were probably right when he was in his early 20s. “Most young boys in their 20s, who have a sparkle, are quite naughty. Secondly, if I was that man, would I have won three stars in Michelin with all the criteria they had? I was working 100 hours a week, when did I have time to be this person? But the media wanted to label me and that’s fine. So I’m more of an enigma than I’m famous,” he states. 

Marco’s right when he calls himself an enigma. To be the youngest chef to win three Michelin stars by the age of 33 and then to return them  — as he felt it was more important to re-invent himself and spend more time with his children — isn’t a move most people would make. “But I’ve never been as happy in my life as I am now. I travel the world, experience different cultures; the pressure which was on me as a man with three Michelin stars, isn’t with me today,” he states. He may have given up his award but he isn’t anti-awards. “They inspire people and make them dream. I accept them if I know that the people who are giving the awards to me know more than me. I’m pro awards.”

The Masterchef believes chefs should aspire to discover themselves with food. “The more you discover yourself, the more you start simplifying what’s on your plate.” Marco admits he has no regrets in life. “I might not approve of everything I did in my life. Maybe, I took some wrong decisions. There were some successes and a lot of failures. But what I have to accept is that I would not be the man I am today had I not done all those things in life.” Ask him if he is proud of what he is and he smiles, “Yes, I don’t think my mother would be embarrassed. I worked hard to become the person my mother would have expected me to become. I think that’s what’s important to me as a man.” 

KNOW MARCO

HIS FAVOURITE CUISINE:

Probably Italian. It takes me back to my childhood

ON JUDGING CHEFS:

I never judge them, I just form an opinion. 

WHAT HE WANTS TO SEE ON A PLATE:

Back to what it was. Why change anything that’s already delicious? Just refine it. 

WHAT HE’D LIKE HIS LAST MEAL TO BE:

I’ll settle for eggs and chicken.