“There hasn’t been a food memoir this deliciously wicked since Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential.”—Portland Oregonian
The Devil in the Kitchen is legendary chef Marco Pierre White’s memoir of growing up working-class in Leeds and going on to become a king in the culinary world—the original celebrity chef. The first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin stars—and also the only one to ever give them all back—is known equally for his astonishing talent and for being a chain-smoking, pot-throwing enfant terrible of the kitchen. In The Devil in the Kitchen he takes readers on a revealing and raucous ride, featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond. It’s truly a decadent feast for anyone who loves food or just a great story.
Born in Leeds in 1961, Marco Pierre White was the first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin starts. His gastronomic empire—Luciano and Marco’s restaurants, among others—is rapidly expanding to include ventures in Las Vegas, Shanghai, Jamaica, and Dubai, with more in the
works. Through he retired from the kitchen in 1999, White recently returned to the stove to serve as the host of Hell’s Kitchen. He lives in West London with his wife, Mati, and their three children. He also has a daughter by his first wife.
As a gossip columnist in the late eighties, James Steen phoned Harveys to speak with Marco Pierre White. A maître d’ answered the phone and ranted on in a strong French accent about how White was “a monster, a crazy man, a lunatic to work for.” The “maître d’,” it transpired, was White. The relationship went from there. Steen, a freelance journalist, lives a short stroll from what was once Harveys, with his wife, Louise, and three children, Charlie, Billy, and Daisy.
