White Slave

Well, I finally finished White Slave by Marco Pierre White and it was all rather a tumble at the end, over a decade compressed into the last couple of chapters as though nothing of great interest had happened to him since he stopped cooking. Oh there's some late juice about other chefs who've offended him (the stuff about Albert Roux is revelatory, about Gordon Ramsay less so); the mildly interesting tale of the sinking of his restaurant Titanic; and a little bit about his much rumoured marital bust-ups. But nothing as well realised or remembered as the first parts of the book, where he was serving apprenticeships and opening Harvey's. The style is fairly stilted to the end, nothing like as readable as his columns or as personable as the interview he gave on Google promoting the book (check it out on You Tube). For such a charming man the book is rather charmless. That said, if you have any interest in the story of the man who was clearly the most important British chef of the 20th century then you'll need to read this, and will probably get enough out of it to make it worthwhile.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to his upcoming appearance on Hell's Kitchen and new cookbook. Indeed it seems to me that after a decade in seclusion MPW is pushing himself forward again; which should be interesting.