MasterChef welcomes back legendary chef Marco Pierre White

As the legendary chef returns to the MasterChef kitchen for the first time in five years, he reveals he prefers the simpler things in life. Except when it comes to 3D printed vegan steak.

He’s one of the world’s most celebrated chefs, garnering three Michelin stars for his innovation before he handed them back to focus on family and simpler fare.

Marco Pierre White still prefers the simpler things in life, eschewing fiddly food and phones.

“I can’t do Zoom, I’m not that kind of person,” White says, after switching our planned video chat at the last minute. “I just have an old-fashioned Nokia where the battery lasts for days. I’m very old school, I just refuse to change.”

Maybe in terms of phones, but that doesn’t extend to innovations in food.

Marco Pierre White says in his 45 years in the industry he has seen many extraordinary things. Picture: Supplied

The 60-year-old is among a handful of chefs who have added 3D printed vegan steak to their menus.

“It’s funny how the world has changed – this is my 45th year in the industry and what I have seen is extraordinary,” White says.

“I think 3D printed meat is one of the most revolutionary and also the cleverest thing I have ever seen in my life. Take my daughter for example, she is a vegetarian on compassionate grounds and she loves it.”

White was vegan himself for nine months. But he was always hungry.

“That’s the beauty of 3D printed meat, it’s got the texture of meat and, so, therefore the joy and the satisfaction,” he says.

White talks with hots Andy Allen, Melissa Leong and Jock Zonfrillo. Picture: Supplied

At home he enjoys eating humble pie or, rather, shepherd’s pie. It was White’s dinner the night before we speak, cooked by a good friend.

“Just because I had Michelin stars doesn’t mean everything has to be posh for me,” he laughs.

But are there guilty pleasures?

“Well, first I have no guilt when it comes to eating and I can take pleasure out of most things,” he says. “But if I’m driving early to the coast for fishing – what are my options? I’ll have a McMuffin. I don’t care. I put some HP sauce on it and it’s fine.

“People look at me like I’m some sort of bizarre creature who’s not allowed to eat it.

“And do you know what? There’s something nice about it – it’s not the flavour, it’s the warmth. It’s rather comforting.”

Chef Marco Pierre White with MasterChef judge Matt Preston in 2016. Picture: Supplied

It’s cold comfort to the remaining MasterChef contestants when the legend looms large as they walk into the kitchen in Thursday’s episode. Contestants will recreate a dish from White’s iconic cookbook, White Heat – a panache of sea scallops, calamari and ink sauce.

It’s White’s first foray back into the MasterChef kitchen in almost five years, after a widely publicised acrimonious fallout with former judge Matt Preston. He confesses it was quite an emotional experience returning to Ten’s flagship cooking show.

“It was quite beautiful actually,” he says. “It’s very important to say it is, without question, the greatest cooking show on earth. I genuinely believe that.

“It inspires people to want to cook – whether viewers or contestants. It makes you want to explore the world of gastronomy. And produce.

“It creates opportunities and makes people want to come into the industry. You tell me another food show that does that?”

MasterChef, Sunday-Thursday, 7.30pm, Ten