I don’t like taking pictures and I don’t like smiling for them,” I overheard Marco Pierre White telling the photographer. I was about to interview him at the Titanic restaurant in Melia Hotel. Minutes later, he was pouring water for me because the waitress had simply left the bottle on the table and making sure I was comfortable.
“I can hold that for you,” he said, grabbing my recorder as I apologised that I would need to hold it close or it would pick up the buzz in the room.
Marco Pierre White is known for his grouchiness as much as he is for his food.
“But I don’t swear. I don’t belittle,” White explained the moodiness evident on TV shows such as Hell’s Kitchen and Marco Pierre White Challenge. “All I was doing was what I have been taught. You have to be very firm”.
For Marco, it is still “real” even if it’s on television.
“I want to bring out in real what kitchen life is all about. I stopped cooking in the 1990s. But my average bill was £300 [Dh1,704] per head. When people pay that sort of money, they want, one, a special occasion; two, standards; and three, they want the chef in the kitchen. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s like buying tickets to an Elton John concert. You sit down, you get excited, the curtain opens and it’s his right-hand man singing. So, in the kitchen too people want the chef behind the stove. It’s all about the experience”
Having lost the battle for Titanic in the UK in the late 1990s, White has brought the concept to the UAE.
The Titanic in London was situated in what used to be the Regent Palace Hotel off Piccadilly Circus, above Oliver Peyton’s Atlantic Bar & Grill. Peyton, also a celebrity chef, objected to a similar concept opening in the same venue. However, the fight was not with White but the landlords.
Mesmerised by Dubai
Almost 15 years later, White revived his concept because he “loves” the Middle East — especially Dubai and the pace of it’s change.
“I’ve no interest in going to Australia, South Africa …” he shrugged. “I like the Middle East, and the beauty of the region is that it opens its arms to people. When you visit Dubai, you visit the world. I’m mesmerised by it. People have a quality of life here. They have opportunities, and I’m sure that’s the same for all expats of different nationalities”.
Built on the same philosophy as the last Titanic, White explained that it’s all about having fun.
“We wanted to have a larger lounge than the main restaurant. People want to relax in a casual environment before they dine. Some may want to smoke too. This lounge makes for a nice place to have a drink and smoke before they eat. Some people want to make it a bit more formal, because it may be a special occasion. So I think you need to create different environments where people can relax, chat, enjoy a drink, order dinner and then be taken to their table. So this restaurant is quite old-fashioned in that strange sort of way, a bit like myself.
“We are not here to impress people with three star Michelin. We are not about that. Besides, an average person wants a three-star Michelin once in a blue moon. What people want is to go to a restaurant, sit down and relax with loved ones and enjoy food at a price point which represents value,” White said.
Fun and friendship
White will have five restaurants in the UAE by the end of the year with the fourth, Wheeler’s opening in September. Some of his restaurants are not as pricey as his signature one, but he doesn’t consider this a step down.
“I’m in the business of selling a night out. I’m in the business of selling fun. That’s my job,” he said. “When you’ve achieved the high end of Michelin, the problem is you don’t have regulars, you cook for strangers because you are so expensive. But I also have businesses today where I have people who come in every single week. You get to know them; they get to know your staff and the proprietor. They are enjoying themselves and can afford to be there on a regular basis. They build a friendship with you which I think is really important. And I like that too — I enjoy seeing my regulars.”
White believes that when someone cooks for you, he is giving you his love, and that’s the inspiration. “It’s the same with a chef. They love giving, they love sharing. Great chefs have three things in common: One, they accept and respect what Mother Nature has to offer a cook. Two, everything they do is an extension of them as a person; and three, they give you insights into the world they were born into. They serve on their plates the world which inspired them,” he said.
White is known for his food. Is there anything else he would like to be remembered for?
“I believe that if you’ve been given, then it’s your responsibility to give back,” White replied after a long pause. “When I was a young man, there were some men who gave me their time. There were some men who gave me opportunity. There were some men who shared their knowledge with me. For me life is like a relay. I’ve been given to hold the baton for only so long before I pass it on. When I won my three Michelin stars, I wasn’t alone. There were 14 others in the kitchen with me who, on the same day, won those three stars with me. Also, all of them who worked with me earlier contributed in some way or another to that moment.
“Success is born out of arrogance, really, but greatness comes from humility. When you’ve realised your dream, it’s time to start living that by assisting others to realise their dream. That’s my belief.”
White is on a roll. Along with launching Titanic and Wheeler’s, the British chef is back on TV, judging Kitchen Wars on Channel 5 in the UK. On the day we met, I’d found on the internet that he had acquired The Frogmill Hotel near Cheltenham in England.
“How do you know about that?” he asked. “It’s my fourth hotel — a beautiful little building. You see, I like noticing things. I like doing things. I like work. That’s the problem. Nothing I ever do is premeditated. I walk down the road of life, and along the way I find things, I see things, people cross my path. That’s what I love about life — it just happens.”
