Owner, Chef Marco Pierre White

Marco Pierre White born 11 December 1961. Marco Pierre White was the third of four boys born to Italian Maria-Rosa Gallina, who had come to Britain to learn English, and chef Frank White, who had struck up a conversation with Maria at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds while he was playing cards. After marrying in 1958, they lived in a council house in Leeds and had sons Graham, Clive and Marco. Six years later, Maria gave birth to a fourth son, Craig Simon. Thirteen days afterwards, she collapsed and was taken back to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, where she died of a brain haemorrhage. Marco has been married three times and has had three children. Education : He began his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and later at the Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Arriving in London as a 16-year-old with "£7.36, a box of books and a bag of clothes", he began his classical training as a commis under Albert Roux and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche, a period that would lead Albert to describe him as "my little lamb". He continued his training under Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire (now the site of Gordon Ramsay), moving to work in the kitchen of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and Nico Ladenis of Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane. He then moved out on his own, working in the kitchen at the Six Bells public house in the Kings Road with assistant Mario Batali. Career :He is one of the greatest English chefs and restaurateurs. He is renowned by patrons and peers alike for having provided a highly creative and innovative impetus into contemporary international cuisine, and is known as much for his quick temper as for his exceptional skills as a chef. White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offence at their comments. Similarly, when in the 1980s a city trader asked if he could have a side order of chips with his lunch, White hand-cut and personally cooked the chips but charged the customer £25 for the honour By the age of 33, Marco Pierre White had been awarded three Michelin stars, becoming the youngest Briton bestowed with this accolade.On completion of his training in 1987, he opened Harveys in Wandsworth Common, London (now the site of Chez Bruce), where he won his first Michelin star almost immediately and was awarded his second in 1988, before moving on to become chef-patron of the Oak Room at Le Meridien Piccadilly and the dining-room at the former Hyde Park Hotel. In 1999, he gave up his Michelin stars: "I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself.". Since retiring in 1999 he has developed his portfolio of restaurants through his eponymous White Star Line company. His London portfolio currently comprises Belvedere, Criterion, Drones, L'Escargot, Luciano's, Mirabelle, Quo Vadis and the Frankie's chain of Italian pizzerias in partnership with jockey Frankie Dettori. White is also dining consultant to cruise line P&O Cruises. His dining Mediterranean restaurant, The White Room, is scheduled to be launched on the Ventura in April 2008. The Ventura should also have a Frankie's Bar and Grill on the top deck and White should oversee The Beach House, a restaurant designed specifically to appeal to families. White has acted as a mentor to a number of prominent chefs of the current generation, such as his fellow three-star British recipients Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. In Australia, they have also included: Donovan Cooke and Philippa Sibley formerly of est est est and Ondine, Shannon Bennett of Vue du Monde, Warren Turnbull of Assiette, and Curtis Stone of The Café Royal, Mirabelle and Quo Vadis, among others. Came out of retirement to head Hells Kitchen in 2007. Books : White has published several books, including White Heat (containing a photograph of a young Gordon Ramsay enjoying a rare moment of levity in the Harveys kitchen), an autobiography, White Slave (retitled The Devil in the Kitchen for its paperback edition), and Wild Food from Land and Sea Hobbies : Fond of fishing and game hunting.