Why chef Marco Pierre White’s cookbook, White Heat 25, makes poignant reading

Ask any foodie with a long memory what they know of chef Marco Pierre White and chances are they will remember stories of his fierce temper (he once made a 20-year-old Gordon Ramsay cry), his marriages and affairs, unpredictable behaviour (he fought with food critics and customers), and the legendary £25 plate of chips made by White himself for a customer who insisted on having them even though they weren’t on the menu.

In 1994, when he was 32, Michelin awarded Restaurant Marco Pierre White three stars, making him the youngest chef (at the time) and the first Briton to receive the top accolade. White retired from the kitchen in 1999, at the top of his game.

White Heat was first published in 1990, and this edition, White Heat 25, came out in 2015, the book’s 25th anniversary. White’s original foreword makes poignant reading now: “You’re buying White Heat because you want to cook well? Because you want to cook Michelin stars? Forget it. Save your money. Go and buy a saucepan.

“You want ideas, inspiration, a bit of Marco? Then maybe you’ll get something out of this book. I warn you, though, it’s a jigsaw, and there’s a hundred pieces missing. What do you expect? I’m just at the beginning of my career. You’re not going to see the true Marco until I’m 35 or 40. I haven’t even been to France yet. But what’s here is me, 1990 vintage, built on a foundation of energy and honesty and quality.

“I still have a huge amount left to learn. Everything changes in the restaurant, every day. By the time you read this, by the time you start using my ideas, the recipes will have changed. I’m never satisfied with anything I do, never. Almost never. The taglia­telle of oysters, I’m satisfied with that, I can’t do anything better with it. Or the pig’s trotter – but that’s Pierre Koffmann’s dish, that’s his perfection. Everything else I’m still thinking about, I’m still working on. Why do you think I still wear a blue apron?”