Quotes from Marco Pierre White

Generally, I respect critics; they have their job to do.

The food wasn't very good in the first kitchen I ever worked in. But it was very busy, so I learnt to be fast, absorb pressure, use a knife, and say, 'Yes, chef.'

If I did one thing, I made cooking rock n' roll: I made it sexy. I made young kids from rich backgrounds want to come into my world.

If you really want to know what motivated me as a young man, it was a fear of death.

I can't work in a domestic kitchen; it's just too confined. There's no freedom, and there's no buzz.

People still think I led a rock and roll lifestyle. I was in my kitchen 100 hours a week; I didn't have time to do that.

I think it's really important for every young person to work in a kitchen because you learn a life skill.

In 1990 at Harveys, when I was 28 years old, I became the youngest chef to win two Michelin stars. It was a huge achievement.

I think self-discovery is the greatest achievement in life, because once you discover yourself and accept what you are, then you can fulfil your true potential and be happy.

One day, a chef moaned that he was too hot, so I took a carving knife in one hand, held his jacket with the other, and slashed it. Then I slashed his trousers. Both garments were still on his body at the time.

Self-control is true power.

I didn't understand myself well enough be an ambassador to my world, to inspire people to want to cook, to inspire young people to want to come into my industry.

My mind might be conservative, but at heart, I was always a socialist.

I think what you got to do is to create an environment which people wish to sit in. You have to create a menu which is interesting to people. You have to create food which is delicious and affordable. I think that's what's important.

If I think back to the eighties, my methods weren't conventional, but they got results.

My twenties were the worst period of my life.

When I look at old pictures, I see my son Luciano, not me. Luciano looks identical. That's what's extraordinary, the power of a gene pool.

We all make mistakes. God knows I've made more than anyone else I know.

All great chefs have two things in common. First, they respect nature as the true artist, and they are just cooks. Second, everything that they do is an extension of them as a person.

I have no regrets in my life. If not for the mistakes that I made I would not be the man I am today.

My grandfather, father, and uncle were chefs, and my other uncle was a butcher.

Nine out of 10 English chefs have their names on their chests. Who do they think they are? They're dreamers. They're jokes.

Whether dealing with children or chefs, they are all giant babies in need of nurturing.

As far as I am concerned, ambition is the most dangerous occupation in the world. I have never been ambitious, or if I have, it's only been by default.