book data
197 ratings,
3.34
average rating, 58 reviews
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published
May 27th 2008
(first published 2007)
by Bloomsbury USA
binding
Paperback, 256 pages
isbn
1596914971
(isbn13: 9781596914971)
description
Amazon Significant Seven, May 2007: Marco Pierre White made history as the most decorated chef in the UK and still holds the honor as the youngest che...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 347)
All ratings
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5 stars (32)
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4 stars (49)
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3 stars (70)
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2 stars (32)
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1 star (8)
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avg 3.34
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in July, 2008
OOooh, he's such a nasty boy. I think I might like to have him cook for me, but I wouldn't want to know him in any other context. I wouldn't want to be his wife and I sure as hell wouldn't want to work for him.
I understand that to some degree a mercurial, self-confident demeanor is a job requirement for being a Michelin-3-star-caliber chef but White comes off as a 5-star jerk. He's very quick to quote positive reviews and people who bolster his image as a sex-god Mick-Jagger-of-the-k...more
I understand that to some degree a mercurial, self-confident demeanor is a job requirement for being a Michelin-3-star-caliber chef but White comes off as a 5-star jerk. He's very quick to quote positive reviews and people who bolster his image as a sex-god Mick-Jagger-of-the-k...more
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recommends it for:
chefs and therapists!
Marco Pierre White has had an illustrious career for sure, but he's no Anthony Bourdain. At least Tony has respect for the cultures of the world and sees what an as* he has been.
I wish Marco well but thought this was just another retrospective of a self-absorbed, workaholic madman who achieved high culinary honors by manipulating, terrifying, insulting, abusing, and ignoring anyone who should have mattered to him (except his wife Mati, who must be a saint or the ultimate masochist)....more
I wish Marco well but thought this was just another retrospective of a self-absorbed, workaholic madman who achieved high culinary honors by manipulating, terrifying, insulting, abusing, and ignoring anyone who should have mattered to him (except his wife Mati, who must be a saint or the ultimate masochist)....more
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Read in June, 2008
He may be a wonderful chef, but he is a bore of a writer. Self absorbed and nasty about folks who trained him and gave him a chance and those he trained. It is no wonder he states he doesn't speak to so and so anymore! I didn't see much sex in the book...either it was so boring I have forgotten about it or working 17 hour days he didn't really have much time for the sex!
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Read in July, 2008
Although tempered with brief instances of enticing narration, the book falls very short of its potential. White has a reputation for having a frenetic, perfectionist attitude, yet very little of either comes across in his own book. I think a proper biographer, and not the subject, would have a far more equitable, and interesting, story to tell.
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Read in April, 2009
I enjoyed this book about Marco's life and his quest for perfection. It has a very straight forward delivery and you have the sense throughout that it was written by someone who isn't a writer. Because of that I can't go higher than three stars but if you enjoy books about the restaurant business I would recommend it.
Marco doesn't have Bourdain's engaging gift of storytelling or humorous observations but his obsession with obtaining three Michelin stars provides for some riveting reading...more
Marco doesn't have Bourdain's engaging gift of storytelling or humorous observations but his obsession with obtaining three Michelin stars provides for some riveting reading...more
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Read in December, 2008
The French chef and English bad boy, MPW, has never been to France. He was born in Leeds, but can barely read English. He is, though, a cooking genius. All those Michelin stars and all those fine plates of food were created by a demonic spirit who couldn't resist himself. (he made Gordon Ramsey cry). The weekness of the book is that it focused too much on the snarl instead of the mind behind the stove. Bill Buford's book Heat (chapter 5) is the place to go to get a hilarious and sensitive p...more
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Read in December, 2008
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential - a behind the scenes look into a chef's life - was what got me hooked on food literature. Although Bourdain and White are different in many ways (White's a three starred Michelin chef and he stresses that he never did drugs nor did he binge on alcohol), the Devil in the Kitchen reminded me of Bourdain's book in many ways: the hard scrabble to the top, their accounts of verbal exchanges in the kitchen with the liberal use of foul language, and ultimately,...more
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
foodies
Marco Pierre White's story is interesting. I'm not a "foodie", but I still enjoyed it. The writing style was kind of rough at times, extremely conversational and would sometimes jump from one topic to the next without much transition (surprised he had a ghostwriter), but all in all it was an entertaining read.
White, like most chefs, is a hothead. His infamous temper was apparently the talk of London's restaurant world during his heyday. Although to me he seems to go overboard...more
White, like most chefs, is a hothead. His infamous temper was apparently the talk of London's restaurant world during his heyday. Although to me he seems to go overboard...more
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Read in March, 2008
Ok, second book in a row that I was just glad to get to then end! The subtitle of The Devil in the Kitchen is Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of Great Chef… I think the more accurate title would have been “Being a great chef is an excuse for sex, pain, and madness”. The autobiography covers Marco White’s (big name chef in Britain) life starting as a child with the early loss of his mother, through to retiring young after receiving the highest Michelin accolades possible. You kind o...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
foodies
I had the pleasure of meeting the “rock star chef” at a reading in NYC and he does not disappoint. He is deliciously salty and it is no wonder he has garnered the reputation that he has. Marco’s love and respect for food is absolute. He is a dying breed. The majority of today’s celebrity chefs are not in their kitchens at all, but orchestrating them from afar and that distance results in the sacrifice of the preparation, cooking, presentation and passion. On that note, as illuminat...more
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Read in May, 2007
This is the tell-all story of Marco Pierre White--the first English chef to win three Michelin stars, no small feat in the francophile scene of haute cuisine. The story is suitably inspiring. White grew up motherless in a Leeds council flat, dropped out of high school, and quickly earned an apprenticeship in the school of hard knocks. As chefs do, he made his way around the finest restaurants of London and was eventually asked to head a new venture called Harveys, where he made his name.
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Has me thinking about gourmet cooking... Needs to be read with some distance, as the author still holds a rather high opinion of himself. Book still manages to provide a window into the adrenaline of haute cuisine, and I enjoyed that aspect of the work, as well as the author's passion for food and presentation, which became quite infectious.
The book was coauthored by a tabloid journalist, and has a "People magazine" tone to it, perhaps mixed with a dash of "Time"...more
The book was coauthored by a tabloid journalist, and has a "People magazine" tone to it, perhaps mixed with a dash of "Time"...more
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The Devil in the Kitchen is an autobiographical look at Great Britain's enfant terrible chef, the youngest British chef to win 3 Michelin stars. It's a wild ride, a gritty look at life in the kitchen as lived by those who are driven by a passion for food and cooking. The trouble is that White reveals himself to be such an abusive jerk that this detracts from an otherwise informative and even fascinating look at what it's really like in the kitchens of fine restaurants. He may well be a cooking g...more
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Read in December, 2008
If it's ghostwritten, it's probably not great... But god, I love reading about food. And Marco Pierre White was hot back in the day. Not so much now.
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this is a good read for those of you who like to cook, are OCD, and have anger management issues. explores how a human being can see the light.
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Read in June, 2009
Well, this book managed to surprise me. I felt torn through the whole thing. I loved the descriptions of the food, and the way he prepared everything, and how he was in the kitchen. The rest of it bored me. It very much illistrated how intelligent, scrappy, passionate and hard - working he is - but also, that first and foremost he is a chef, not a writer, and that is absolutely how the book reads. I admired the story, but could have read it with about 75 fewer pages. That being said, how I...more
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Lordy, this has reaffirmed my dislike for the autobiography. Disjointed and clunky in places.
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Read in July, 2009
Why did you write a memoir, Marco, if every anecdote is disclaimed with "I don't remember"?
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Read in November, 2008
Entertaining. Would never want to work for or with this guy, though.
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Read in March, 2009
This was good, and he's an interesting guy, but he's not a writer.
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