In conversation with the rock-star chef, Marco Pierre White

Shot at, bombs blasting down the road – Marco Pierre White’s ‘rock-star’ reputation stems from his fearless commitment, including serving troops on the front line.

This is why they call him the rock-star chef.

I sat down with Marco Pierre White on Wednesday and what I thought was going to be an in-and-out five minute chat with the youngest chef ever to win three Michelin stars turned into an hour-long conversation.

On the Gold Coast for back-to-back, hands-on events at HOTA, the man who trained the likes of Shannon Bennett, Gordon Ramsay, Curtis Stone and Phil Howard is used to seriously high pressure environments.

So when it came to feeding troops in an active war zone, he was right there on the front line.

“What’s interesting about it is the adrenaline takes over,” he said.

“So you don’t think about the consequences.”

British celebrity chef Marco Pierre White, posed in 1988. (Photo by John Stoddart/Getty Images)

It was during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, on multiple occasions, when the celebrity chef made his way to the front line.

“I always insist on feeding them on the front line rather than going to camp for two hours, few little photographs and disappear,” he said.

“It’s not until you’ve left that you think about the consequences, seeing bodies makes you very subdued at the end of it all, but that’s not until you get home and become very within yourself.”

Shot at, bombs blasting down the road – this is the thick of it.

“The reality is when you’re in that environment, you’re there to do a job,” he said.

“My job was to feed the troops on the front line, so you don’t think about anything else. You go and do your job.”

Marco Pierre White.

Mr White said he could still vividly remember everything, but his heart goes out to those living it day in day out.

“When I was in Helmand Province all of a sudden this sort of shadow came over us, metaphorically speaking,” he said.

“Three or four people had been killed and were being brought back to the camp. Everything become very subdued, and your instincts take over. I only saw a snippet, but if you’re out there for a year, six months – it must affect you for life, it has to change you.”

The chef said one of the most poignant conversations he had on one of the trips, was with young troops in their early 20s.

“There was a plasma screen TV and these young men always had the news on,” he said.

“I said to them, ‘when you watch the BBC news and you see what they say and how they show the war, what do you think?’

The world-renowned and original rock-star chef Marco Pierre White returns to the Gold Coast’s cultural precinct, HOTA, Home of the Arts, this winter for an exclusive three-day culinary residency. Photo: Supplied

“They said, ‘Marco, what you see on the TV is not what we see. It’s watered down, showing what they want you to know.’ I thought that’s quite interesting from a young person of 22. “These young men have to walk down the road every day and look at stones. Big stones and think, that wasn’t there yesterday. Because they’re bombs inside paper mache stones.”

Mr White added while he doesn’t agree with war, it’s the troops he supports.

“It’s not about a photograph. It’s not about whatever. You do your bit,” he said.

“I don’t agree with war, I’m pacifist. But the troops – they deserve our support.”

Originally published as In conversation with the rock-star chef, Marco Pierre White