The culinary legend has given his side of his stormy relationship with his most famous protégé – and disputes the infamous story that he reduced him to tears
Marco Pierre White has lifted the lid on his decades-long feud with TV chef rival Gordon Ramsay, insisting they have buried the hatchet – but blasts his former protégé’s claims he once made him cry.
The Hell’s Kitchen star, 64, who in 1994 became the youngest chef ever to win three Michelin stars at the age of 32, trained a young Gordon, now 59, at his celebrated London restaurant Harvey’s in the late 1980s.
Gordon has never held back about his treatment at the hands of his old boss. In his 2006 autobiography Humble Pie, he named Marco as the living person he “most disliked”, branding him “two-faced”.
Now, in an attempt to set the record straight on their fiery relationship, Marco has shared his version of events.
“Gordon came to me as a young man. I liked Gordon. He was kind. He worked hard for me,” Marco said on the Louis Theroux podcast this week. When Louis asked him if he made Gordon cry – as Gordon has famously claimed – Marco replied: “He made himself cry. He was chopping onions at the time.”
But he admitted there were tears on Gordon’s final night working for him in July 1989. “It was highly emotional for him. He did say to me, ‘I don’t care Marco, just f***ing hit me, whatever’. He was very upset. It was 30-plus years ago.”
For all their bad blood, Marco was full of praise for the man he helped make a star, recalling how he handed Gordon his big break and later helped him land a job in France with master chef Guy Savoy. “He asked me for a favour and I did that favour,” Marco said.
He was diplomatic about his old apprentice’s skills: “He’s a great technician, is Gordon. A really good technician. His plates are clean and they’re always tidy. And they’re consistent. And that’s what it takes to win three stars in Michelin.”
But Marco refused to take the blame for creating Gordon’s famous screaming TV persona – made famous on Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares. “I cannot be held responsible for that,” he said. “Gordon is his own creation, like I’m my own creation. We’re responsible for our own journeys in life.”
He added the pair get on so well these days, they are now working together on a new TV show called The Rock N Roll Chef. Gordon is producing the BBC Two programme, which starts filming later this year, and Marcus will be the host.
Marco, who has two sons, Marco Pierre Jnr, 30, and Luciano, 32, also revealed a touching gesture from Gordon when one of them was was in the headlines recently. He did not specify which one.
Marco Pierre White Jnr was jailed for almost four years last year over a burglary spree linked to a long-standing drug addiction, while Luciano saw his Italian restaurant close amid poor reviews and money troubles.
“Gordon sent me the most beautiful text,” Marco said. “The Gordon Ramsay the press wants to talk about is not the Gordon Ramsay I know. Gordon Ramsay, as far as I’m concerned, is a beautiful boy.”
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