Publisher Description

An exhilirating memoir from the legendary Godfather of Bad Boy cookimg and a thrilling look behind the doors of a 3-star kitchen. Without question, the original rock-star chef is Marco Pierre White. Anyone with even a passing interest in the food world knows White is a legend. The first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin stars - and also the only chef ever to give them all back - is a chain-smoking, pot-throwing multiply- married culinary genius whose fierce devotion to food and restaurants has been the only constant in a life of tabloid-ready turmoil. In The Devil in the Kitchen White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, leaving no dish unserved as he relays raucus and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, including: Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and even Prince Charles. With candid honesty and wicked humor, he gives us insight into what it takes to become a great chef, what it's like to run a 3-star kitchen, and why sometimes you really do need to throw a cheese plate at the wall.

Author Biography

Marco Pierre White was born in Leeds in 1961. After training in Britain's finest kitchens, he opened Harveys, which earned two Michelin stars and was London's most talked-about restaurant. From there, he went on to win a third star and build a gastronomic empire that includes many of the most acclaimed restaurants in the U.K. In 1999, he retired from the kitchen and handed back his Michelin stars, but he maintains his presence in the culinary world with Luciano and the Frankie's restaurants, among others. He lives in West London with his wife, Mati, and their three children. He also has a daughter by his first wife. As a gossip columnist in the late eighties, James Steen phoned Harveys to speak with Marco Pierre White. A Maitre d' answered the phone and ranted on in a strong French accent about how White was "a monster, a crazy man, a lunatic to work for." The "matre d'," it transpired was White. The relationship went from there. Steen, a freelance journalist, lives a short stroll from what was once Harveys, with his wife Louise, and three children, Charlie, Billy, and Daisy.

Review

"A moving, unaffected, delightfully honest book. He may have been one of the most disagreeable bastards ever to command a kitchen brigade, but in the same guileless, unfiltered way in which he cursed out sous-chefs, he's told one hell of a story." - David Kamp, New York Times Book Review "Bubbles over with pot-hurling, star-chasing antics that earned him the title The Devil in the Kitchen." - Vanity Fair "His memoir walks us through his career like a grand tasting menu." - San Francisco Chronicle "[The] story of the working-class boy from Leeds who grows up and becomes a world-class chef, is fascinating, especially in our food and chef-obsessed world. Revealing...a juicy tale." - Chicago Sun-Times "Compelling...There hasn't been a food memoir this deliciously wicked since Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential." I learned more about what it's like to cook in a restaurant kitchen than from any other book I've read." - Portland Oregonian "Tantalizing." - Vogue

Review Quote

Praise for "The Devil in the Kitchen" "A moving, unaffected, delightfully honest book. At times it's almost sweet. The culinary memoir it most recalls is, of all things, Jacques Pepin's "Apprentice." Like Pepin, White grew up in a family that had little but appreciation of good food. And like "the apprentice," white's book has early moments of heartbreaking privation and loss that give way to happy momentum-a dawning on the protagonist's part and eventually, on that of his bosses, peers and public, that he is perpetually gifted at cooking...Even as White recounts these tales, though he does so without sensationalism or self-congratulation...he may have been one of the most disagreeable bastards ever to command a kitchen brigade, but in the same guileless, unfiltered way in which he cursed out sous-chefs, he's told one hell of a story."--David Kamp, "New York Times Book Review" "Marco will always remain the epitome of the wicked, talented, flamboyant chef---the archetype made flesh. And really, would we want him any other way?"--"Independent" "There hasn't been a food memoir this deliciously wicked since Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential, .."but White's story ultimately proves more compelling because he's willing to expose his flaws instead of hiding behindcynicism. And I learned more about what it's like to cook in a restaurant kitchen than from any other book I've read."--"Portland"" Oregonian" "The original enfant terrible of the kitchen....One can feel White's influence not only in his gastronomic legacy, but also in the wild-boy posturing of the volatile celebrity chefs who now populate our televisions."--"Guardian" Praise for Marco Pierre White: "Marco Pierre White was the original rock-star chef--the guy who all of us wanted to be. From the moment my chef pals and I got a look at his first cookbook--and at photos of the Man Himself, in all his haggard, debauched-looking, obsessively driven glory-- we dreamed of nothing more than to be just like him. He made history."--Anthony Bourdain "Marco is a gift to humanity, with more passion per pound than anyone else I have ever met. His story is genius, his voice his own and the tale retold is just as much fun as it was watching the whole chaotic conundrum evolve the first time around. His sophisticated cooking came out of nowhere but inside his rock star head, and this autobiography makes it all clear in the juiciest and most delicious way. After all these years, Marco is still my hero."--MarioBatali "Marco is probably the most charismatic chef of the twentieth century: the last of the romantics, a brooding Bryon of the kitchen, the most creative person youll ever meet and the most self-destructive, a self-described monster and an unrecognized poet, and, without question, the most influential British chef since the invention of fish and chips. Nobody has found so much meaning -so much passion and outright an intensity of feeling - in a plate of food." - Bill Buford, author of "Heat"

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