Marco Pierre White reveals feud with Matt Preston is the reason he left MasterChef
FOOD legend Marco Pierre White has revealed a bitter rift with co-host Matt Preston is behind his decision to defect from the Channel 10 show MasterChef Australia and join a rival network.
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BRITISH culinary legend Marco Pierre White has revealed a bitter rift with co-host Matt Preston is behind his decision to defect from the Channel 10 show MasterChef Australia and join a rival network.
He has also vowed “on his mother’s grave” to “get that man” over comments Preston made on radio last year about the behaviour of White’s son.
The chef, who left Adelaide yesterday after more than a week as guest of the Tasting Australia festival, has never commented in public on the falling out.
However, in casual conversation after an event in the Barossa on Sunday night, a question from Channel 10 newsreader Rebecca Morse on why he had left the network’s hit show to star in Channel 7 series Hell’s Kitchen Australia triggered an epic spray about Preston.
“The things he said about my son in the British press were disgraceful,” he said. “No one should ever say that about someone else’s children. I will never forgive that man.”
White described Preston as a “canary in the coalmine’’ and ended the tirade by holding his hand out, palm down and shaking, and saying, “with my hand on my mother’s grave I will get that man’’.
The rift can be traced back to an interview Preston did with Sydney-based radio presenters Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O that took place just after Marco Pierre White Jr had made headlines for appearing to have sex with another housemate as cameras were rolling on the UK version of Big Brother.
Asked about the incident, Preston said: “I think it is that terrible thing when you have kids that go off the rails, how do you deal with it? I don’t know. I don’t think Marco has a solution, I don’t think anyone has a solution.”
Preston also commented on the appearance of the inked-up 22-year-old, who works as a model: “Well anyone who has tattoos on their face they normally behave badly don’t they? They have kind of crossed through a barrier at that point.”
The discussion also included reference to drug use by White Jr and his father’s role as a parent: “Well, he is a dad. I mean any dad would feel that whenever your kid goes off the rails the first thing is ‘what could I have done better?’ I think Marco is no different.”
Asked to respond to White’s outburst yesterday, Preston told The Advertiser he would not pour fuel on the fire.
“I have the greatest respect for Marco Pierre White having had a professional relationship with Marco for the past five years,” he said. “Marco has already reached out to me to organise a sit down to clear the air.”
For his part, White said he had no further comment and nothing to add.
In an earlier interview during his stay in Adelaide, the chef, who is famed for being the youngest to earn three Michelin stars, and also for his decision to hand them back, touched on the sacrifices required to cook at this level.
“I was leaving home at seven o’clock and my two sons were sleeping,” he said. “I’d get home at 12 or one in the morning and my two sons were sleeping. On Sunday, the only day I had off, I was too exhausted to invest in them and give them the time they needed and enjoy them. I was physically drained.”
He also reflected on his own wild days that led to his reputation as an “enfant terrible” of gastronomy.
“When we are young we do lots of things for the wrong reasons,” he said. “But that’s called growing up. It’s about taking knowledge from the mistakes we make.
“I’ve made more mistakes than any man I know ... I was that misfit, the round peg that couldn’t fit in the square hole.
“Some of the things I did in my late teens and early 20s my mother would have been appalled at. Boys have to make mistakes to become a man.”
White, who is restoring a hotel and surrounding farm, has his son living with him on the property.
He sees his role now as inspiring the young, which he hopes to achieve as host of Hell’s Kitchen Australia. “I don’t swear, I don’t belittle, I might be a little facetious in an English way, but that is my naughty nature. If you lead from the front, then people will follow,” he said.
“What I say to any young cook is what I say to my daughter every week. I say if you have a dream then you have a duty to yourself to make it come true.”