Culinary class

From Hell’s Kitchen to heavenly haute cuisine, Christopher Nye grills the original celebrity chef Marco Pierre White on football, Fulham and French, with a twist of British, food

Above: Marco Pierre White Photograph by Dave Vickers

There is a new ‘special one’ at Stamford Bridge. No sooner had one charismatic, designer-stubbled ego departed SW6, than Marco Pierre White, former enfant terrible of British cooking and the first Brit to be awarded three Michelin stars, has arrived. His new restaurant (named Marco after his son, he assures us) is set into the very walls of Stamford Bridge, on the site of the old Harry Ramsden’s. But Marco, how are you getting along with Mr Abramovich? “All I will say, is that Mr Abramovich is a true gentleman,” says Marco, as he settles into a blue seat overlooking the famous turf for our photographer. Old fashioned virtues are important to Marco Pierre White, who apologises six times during the interview for turning up a few minutes late.

With the menu, Marco is going for maximum flexibility, with old British favourites happily rubbing along with the classic French cookery that made him famous: “What I would like to do here is great British dinners done beautifully.” The menu will vary according to whether there is a match on, and even the time of the match: “The thing with match days,” says Marco “is that 95% of the people are men, and they want feeding. So there’s roast partridge with all the trimmings, braised oxtail with kidney pudding, fish pies, steak and chips; it’s your choice. For a Sunday afternoon kick off we’ll do a traditional roast. For a 12 o’clock kick-off we’ll do a brunch.”

So is it a football themed restaurant or a restaurant that happens to be attached to a football ground? “It’s a restaurant that touches into everyone’s needs. We have match days, we have businesspeople staying the hotel, we have local residents, we have the directors of Chelsea entertaining clients. So you have this cross section of society who want something different, and we have tailored your menu to suit each one.” On non-match days the menu is predominantly French, with starters like Escalope of foie gras and duck egg on brioche toast, main courses such as Fillet of Cod Viennoise with Champagne Sabayon. The restaurant is just yards from Fulham Broadway tube, and is open every day for lunch and dinner. A two course lunch is £20, a three course dinner around £50, and the house wine is £15.

Head Chef is Matt Brown, back behind the stove after his stint terrorising Anneka Rice on Hell’s Kitchen. Design of the 70 cover restaurant is by Tara Bernerd of Target Living. It is chic, in black and gold, and with a stunning central column created from Swarovski Crystal. There’s a hint of Footballers Wives in the combination of black granite and gold crystal, but Marco is keen for the venue to appeal for business and romantic assignations too, with cosy booths: “The most important aspect of any restaurant is the environment you sit in. You have to feel comfortable. That’s why we’ve got a lot of booths. I like booths. If you’re going out for a business dinner you’ve got your own little space. You can chat. If you’re having a romantic dinner, you’ve got your own space again.” Visitors to date have included Guy Ritchie, Roman Abramovich, Jeffrey Archer, Frank Lampard and John Terry.

For a lad from Leeds, Chelsea might seem and odd choice of venue, given the two clubs’ mutual loathing that dates back to the 70/71 FA Cup Final. Marco looks vaguely uneasy for the first time, as he admits: “They do say round here, that to be a true Chelsea fan you have to hate Leeds more than you hate Arsenal. But look, I just love football, whoever is playing.”

He brings the same attitude to restaurants too, as he shows off the new venue’s best points: “A restaurant is like a home; it’s never right straight away; you have to keep developing. We’re getting new pictures in, great splashes of colour from photographer Richard Young”.

This isn’t the first time that Marco has brought culinary class to south west London. He won Wandsworth’s first two Michelin stars at Harveys. With Nico Ladenis winning two stars at Queenstown Road, the late 80s were heady days for the area, before both Marco and Nico went ‘up west’ to win the all-important three stars. Cooking at that level took its toll though, with a brace of failed marriages including a 15-week long one with model and What Not to Wear presenter Lisa Butcher. Marco explains: “The thing with restaurants is that at that level of gastronomy, all your energies go into your food. You’re in that environment – four walls, white tiles, big stove in the middle – twice a day being pressurised, and you stunt your growth as a person. You’re quite socially inept. So when I came out of the kitchen at 38, I might as well have been 16 years old.” So not exactly living the high life of SW then? “No,” he laughs, “Not exactly. But in 1999 I retired from the kitchen and spent five years having fun with my kids: fishing, shooting, deer stalking...”

And then he realised it was time to get serious again. For the last couple of years Marco has been rebuilding his brand, both in the UK and the States. He enjoys a fearsome reputation as the daddy of all chef hell-raisers, yet the face he showed on Hell’s Kitchen seemed anything but. “I watched a bit of the previous series, with Gordon Ramsey and Gary Rhodes, and wanted to be different. I wanted to inspire people to want to serve the customers, not to swear at them, or belittle them. I feel I’m an ambassador for my industry, whether that’s a café or a fish and chip shop or a works canteen.” He has also continued to open more Frankie’s pizza restaurants in conjunction with jockey Frankie Dettori, and hopes to do more series of Hell’s Kitchen.

Marco has mellowed then. He is happy to do a cookery demonstration for Martha Stewart; happy to sell pizzas in a chain of restaurants; happy to munch an egg McMuffin on his way to Dorset for deerstalking, and happy to be providing good honest nosh to the people of SW.