On a chain around his neck, Marco Pierre White wears a silver meat cleaver, a discreet size smaller than gangsta. It is an apt choice of jewellery: a symbol of his trade, with a meaningful hint of menace or perhaps a lucky talisman. Marco?s huge 6?4? frame is by turns intense, intimidating and charismatic.
If you thought Gordon Ramsey had the monopoly on bad chef behaviour then think again, Gordon (Marco?s most famous protégé) is a mere minnow to the Great White. Still, food is far more important than egos and Marco knows more about this subject than any mortal. His bio reads like a culinary Who?s Who. At 33, he was the youngest chef – and the only Englishman – to get three Michelin stars, (that is huge, there are no more stars than that.) Marco worked under Albert Roux at Le Gavroche and Raymond Blanc at his famous Manoir. From there he set up Harvey?s – London?s most talked about restaurant of the 80?s (cue Ramsey).
Currently he has six successful London restaurants and a smart pub in Highclere. Dandara have got MPW on board during these early stages of development at Castle Quay. He is consulting on the whole mix of restaurants there, and has plans to open a couple of his own. It?s a pretty shrewd move by Dandara, to link themselves with a serious food heavyweight, and for Marco to challenge the standard of cuisine on the Island.
On creating lucrative restaurants, Marco says, ?I want to feed a lot of people at a price point in glamorous surroundings.? Rock on. It?s extremely exciting for all of us to think that the Waterfront might be offering real, world-class food. Good restaurants will be the barometer of this new area, they will attract visitors and residents and make the Waterfront a gastrodestination rather than the wind tunnel of KFC wrappers. Marco admits to being ?turned on by produce? and has started to forge partnerships with local producers on the Island. He is returning this month as part of a new TV series on ?the Best of British? to be broadcast in the summer. So we will be seeing more of this culinary behemoth on our shores as he adds his creative and innovative style to Jersey. Just easy with the chopper.
