Nothing seems to be more inviting to a young chef than perfection in a kitchen. Though Marco Pierre White is more of a blast from the past, the book tells a different tale. It shows White in a different light, that beyond the violence, abuse and boorishness there was a chef driven to achieve excellence. It is his life-trailer that finishes with panache, revealing the brutalities of a system that enjoyed aggressive competition. As you read ahead, you quickly realize that Marco Pierre White reveled in his blitz from time to time. In fact, even the book shares a tinge of his personal persona, with the word “bullocks!” or a variation sprinkled practically on every page.
It all begins with a simple statement by Raymond Blanc, the book and the story of Marco Pierre White’s career as a chef.
“We have a new boy starting next month,”
White’s autobiography, shares the drama of the 70′s and 80′s. Working and serving with the likes of Raymond Blanc, Pierre Koffman and Albert Roux, he adopted their talent of brutalizing chefs that worked with them. These chefs may just be names thrown at you, but White describes them as Turks of fine dining. Following is snippet of an ordeal that the ‘Devil’ unleashed, proof immortalized in the first few pages:
“I picked up the first cheese. “Not right!” With all my might I threw it against the wall. It stuck to the tiles. I picked up the second cheese. “Not right!” I chucked it at the wall… I shouted, “Leave them there. Leave them there. Leave them fucking there all night. No one is allowed to touch them.”
What makes the life of Marco Pierre White fascinating is that it starts with the tribulation of a six year old losing his mother. It then touches the subject of his life with two older brothers and a dominating father. The transformation from innocence to aggression is clearly visible as the book unfolds. He started working in the kitchen at a raw age of sixteen, and grew a style of his own with experience from the 100-hour weeks in the high temperatures of the kitchen.
As weeks grew into years, White eventually ran his very own kitchen and adding many more. Of course, as the kitchen he ran grew in numbers, he did become infamous for his reputation. Bill Buford, described him as a “the most foul-tempered, most mercurial and most bullying”.
The thrill in the book eventually is detailed with White’s days at Harvey’s and finishes with him scoring his second Michelin star. The crazy fervor later continues at Hyde Park Hotel in Knightsbridge where it boils down to this third Michelin star.
Besides these epigrammatic descriptions of the “Devil in the Kitchen”, there is a zeal that can touch the soul of a true chef and an avid reader.
Marco Pierre White wrote this book with James Steen, to help aspiring chefs and a reader understand what really happens behind the closed doors of a kitchen. After reading through the book, it may allow each reader believe the spell of being a “Devil in the Kitchen.” It was a book that was simply amusing, packed with performance and the funniest story of the pig’s trotter and Blanc. Each story in the book is weaved carefully to inspire and teach a different lesson and always carries a message that the kitchen can be merciless.
To me the book is cunning to the core, and plays with the emotions of the reader…A definite inspiration and drives an urge within to be as astute as the chefs of the past. Setting “Marco Pierre White” as a benchmark for my excellence. It drives me to be a hardworking chef and a superb kitchen artist.
The book has defined timelines that move with White’s age. It reads the various stages of the culinary industry throughout Marco Pierre White’s career. It shows that the kitchen burns with the fire within a chef and it takes a circus of people to serve the perfect flavor. For an average reader, it shows that to making a difference may not be easy but the impact is inevitable. It’s a five star book to me!
While Marco Pierre White may be a great narrator and chef with a temper, he can definitely drive a point home. All throughout the book, he is seen as a no nonsense personality with a hidden sensitive side that definitely comes as a surprise as you read the book. Here is one of the many sensible and thought-provoking line by the great man White himself:
“..no man can choose what he is born into, but every man can choose to better himself.”
The Literary Chef Book Review - Devil in the Kitchen
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