A few months back I found myself on my way
to Dawson St, where I was scheduled to meet the one and only Marco Pierre White
for a chat in his restaurant. I’ve always had this image of him in my head: the
black and white portrait, which was taken in the late 80s by Bob Carlos Clarke.
Marco Pierre looked like a handsome rock star with his long hair and a cigarette
in his mouth. I was quite intimidated at the prospect of meeting the man who
was one of the youngest chefs ever to receive three Michelin stars, who later
gave these stars back to Michelin and a man who once even made Gordon Ramsay
cry.
When I arrived at MPW Steakhouse, the man
himself was busy signing an autograph for a young boy. After that I was invited
to the table and got to chat to him over a cup of tea. Tall, handsome and now
in his 50s Marco Pierre is still full of charisma. I was feeling a bit shy at first
but relaxed after a few minutes, he’s only human after all and even gave me
some great advice during the interview.
Where
did your passion for food come from?
Firstly I didn’t really want to be a chef
as a young boy. My mother was a very good cook and I always ate very good food
as a child but my father, my uncle and grand father were all chefs. When I was
young, you tended to sort of follow in your father’s foot steps so I went to
work in hotels. One day I found a guide, like in France you have the Michelin
and the Gault et Millaut, in England you had the equivalent which was more
powerful than Michelin in those days. I found a guide and I started to flick through
and realized restaurants had stars and the best restaurant in Britain was only
15 miles down the road, run by two men. They were obsessed with restaurants
with 2 or 3 Michelin stars and I got a job there. They used to tell me stories
of great restaurants in France like la Tour d’Argent or Maxims and I used to
just sit and listen. The chef I worked for had trained in the same kitchen as
my father and the restaurant had 2 étoiles
[Michelin stars], one of only 4 restaurants in Britain in those days. That’s
when my passion, my love affair with great French restaurants started. That’s
a very long winded answer, my god you’ll be here all day…
Well
I suppose I have to ask you because I’m French, what do you think of French
food?
Well without question French cuisine is the
most important cuisine in the world. If you look at the great Italian restaurants
today, if you look at the great French restaurants, if you look at the English
restaurants which do very good food the method is always French. If you look at
the man who changed British cuisine, a man called Michel Bourdain who used to
be the sous chef of Maxim’s in Paris. In 1975 he got a job at The Connaught
Hotel and the deal he agreed with him was that half the menu had to be English
or British and the other half French. What he did was call a dish a steak pie
but really it was a ‘daube de boeuf’ in a pastry. He took French methods and
introduced them to English cuisine and that was the beginning of English
cuisine. That was the great Michel Bourdain and if you look at the great
Italian or Spanish restaurants or in Europe generally the foundation is always
French. So it is without question the finest cuisine in the world and it’s
intellectual, intelligent , refined…The French are the masters, without
question.
What
do you think of Irish food and Dublin’s food scene, do you come to Dublin often?
Yes I do I come a bit actually. It’s like
in England and in Britain in general, the UK and Ireland . When I was a boy
there was a restaurant in Cork called Arbutus Lodge with the famous Declan Ryan
who worked in the ‘3 Gros’ in Roanne which was a three Michelin star restaurant
in France. Declan had three stars when he got running in Ireland, he was the man who led
the way, definitely. Today there are lots of very good Irish chefs, you haven’t
got a three star Michelin yet but Patrick Guilbaud is very traditional, very proper,
very correct and he serves the finest food in Ireland. If you look at the food
today in Ireland compared to what it was 15, 20 or even 30 years ago it has
changed a lot. You have seen a massive change.
Tell
me a bit about your restaurants in Dublin.
They’re very straightforward, they’re not
trying to be flash. I think that food has changed but also people’s habits and
how they dine out has changed. Ten years ago in Ireland people didn’t dine out
that often and today people are out all the time. So therefore what people want
now is to sit in an environment where they feel comfortable, where they can get
good food and generous portions at a fair price. I chose a steakhouse and I
think that what’s we do, we’re not trying to be a Michelin star restaurant but
you have fun, you have the buzz , we buy the best meat and it’s as simple as
that. It’s like there is this great concept in Paris called L’Entrecôte which I
think is a genius concept where you get your salad to start with your walnuts,
you get your entrecôte with the sauce and that’s it, genius. So I like
steakhouses and I think steaks are the luxury of both the working man and the
rich man. Even the working man who puts his hand a little bit deeper in his
pocket can get good quality and generous portions.
Do
you have any advice for anyone who would like to work as a chef? Your best
advice.
If you’re young and leaving school, make
sure you put your career into the right hands. Consider who will guide you and
who will teach you correctly.
If you’re older, you need to ask yourself
why I want to do this? Do I want to do
it as a passion or as a career? Where do I want to be in 5 years time? You need
to have a strategy because time is not your friend. When you’re 16 you can go
to the industry and if you don’t like it after a few years you can go to do
something else. When you’re 31 you need to decide, you know what you want a lot
more than when you’re 16-18. When you’re 18 it’s about getting a classical
foundation. At your age you might find that in 5 years time you want to open a
French bistro, cause you have more dreams now. So go and learn the right
techniques and knowledge, which may lead you to open your own bistro.
What
do you think about bloggers, lots of people don’t like them?
But what’s not to like? The reality is they
play an important part in the restaurant world. They share their experience,
they share their knowledge. Yeah it’s your choice and it’s good for
restaurants. It’s one individual’s opinion, you either take it seriously or you
don’t.
Merci beaucoup to Marco Pierre White for meeting
me and answering my questions! It was an honour to meet a true legend of the
culinary world just before embarking my journey to cookery school.
