A biography for Marco Pierre Whitehasn’t been written yet.
“I'm happiest walking through fields, on beaches, and over riverbanks. Nature is my surrogate mother.”
“My favourite dinner is a cup of tea and a ham sandwich with English mustard.”
“I can't work in a domestic kitchen; it's just too confined. There's no freedom, and there's no buzz.”
“I think Singapore is one of the great cities of the world.”
“Females make better cooks than men. Females have a better palate. They have a better sense of smell. They never take shortcuts; this is why they're very good in kitchens. The weakness in what they do is they are not as physically strong as men, so they're never really given the opportunity.”
“My pet hate, with customers, is those that think it's all about wallets.”
“Food should be simple; it shouldn't be complicated, even down to making Knorr gravy: a Knorr stock cube and water, bit of parsley at the end, little bit of olive oil. It's about making the food deliciously tasty.”
“My tortured life - with its extremes and conflicts - might have been difficult for me to deal with, but the press couldn't get enough of it. I was in the papers every day, 'the enfant terrible of the culinary world.'”
“Good people are always forgiving. They close an eye to one's failings.”
“I think it's really important for every young person to work in a kitchen because you learn a life skill.”
“I think, in life, the more you force things, they break. You just let things happen.”
“I was brought up a working-class Tory. I believe, to be a true socialist, you have to be a capitalist first. In my heart, I'm a socialist; in my mind, I'm a capitalist.”
“I like a nice cross section of society in my restaurants - the stars, the toffs, the working guy.”
“I take so much from my life. I have my shooting and my fishing. I have my working life. I have my relationship with my children.”
“A cookery book should be there for inspiration. Recipes should be a guideline, and they shouldn't be cast in stone.”
“I love gardens!”
“Cooking is a philosophy; it's not a recipe.”
“My cooking attracted celebrities. I met Sylvester Stallone. He squeezed my bicep and said: 'I don't usually eat your kind of food, but for you, I ate it.' I haven't got a clue what he'd eaten but he asked me to cook for his wedding feast when he married Jennifer Flavin at Blenheim Palace.”
“I was brought up to respect my father and not to love him.”
“I'm the Christopher Biggins of reality TV.”