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White Heat 25
A 25th anniversary edition of the collection of classic recipes from the 'enfant terrible' of the
UK restaurant scene, featuring striking photographs of his kitchen and his cooking.
Once in a blue moon a book is published that changes irrevocably the face of things. White
Heat is one such book. Since it w as originally produced in 1990, it has gone on to become
one of the most enduring classic cook books of our time. With its unique blend of outspoken
opinion, recipes, and dramatic photographs, White Heat captures the magic and spirit of
Marco Pierre White in the heat of his kitchen.
Marco Pierre White, the original 'enfant terrible', has earned his place in British culinary
history as much for his strong temperament as for his unique talent as a chef. The
youngest chef ever to earn three Michelin stars, he has become not only a star chef of
international renown and food icon of our time, but also a multimillionaire entrepreneur.
'White Heat is an edifying read ... a book that breaks new ground.' - Time Out
'Wonderfully illustrated with photographs by Bob Carlos Clarke...this will sit equally well
on your coffee table or kitchen worktop.' - GQ
'Amazingly religious experience' - Anthony Bourdain
'White Heat is as unlike any previously published cook book as Marco is unlike any run of-the-mill chef.' - Sunday Telegraph
UK restaurant scene, featuring striking photographs of his kitchen and his cooking.
Once in a blue moon a book is published that changes irrevocably the face of things. White
Heat is one such book. Since it w as originally produced in 1990, it has gone on to become
one of the most enduring classic cook books of our time. With its unique blend of outspoken
opinion, recipes, and dramatic photographs, White Heat captures the magic and spirit of
Marco Pierre White in the heat of his kitchen.
Marco Pierre White, the original 'enfant terrible', has earned his place in British culinary
history as much for his strong temperament as for his unique talent as a chef. The
youngest chef ever to earn three Michelin stars, he has become not only a star chef of
international renown and food icon of our time, but also a multimillionaire entrepreneur.
'White Heat is an edifying read ... a book that breaks new ground.' - Time Out
'Wonderfully illustrated with photographs by Bob Carlos Clarke...this will sit equally well
on your coffee table or kitchen worktop.' - GQ
'Amazingly religious experience' - Anthony Bourdain
'White Heat is as unlike any previously published cook book as Marco is unlike any run of-the-mill chef.' - Sunday Telegraph
192 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 29, 2023
"At the restaurant, we roast it with its intestines to give it more flavor, then take its breast off and split the head, so the customer can eat the brains. It's a man's dish. You can't tart around with woodcock."
There are some extraordinary passages in George Orwell's memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London, detailing his experiences working in restaurant kitchens. I read it in the nineties, when I was myself working as a line cook and trying to learn to be a chef. The passages are extraordinary to me because they were written in the twenties and they describe an industry that had hardly changed in the decades that had intervened when I read it. The heat, the noise, the stress, the hostility between cooks and servers - I felt like I was reading a description of the kitchens where I'd worked. Orwell was a dishwasher and he describes one of his fellow plongeurs at length, a man who liked to describe himself as a "debrouillard," which word the dictionary defines as "resourceful" or "adaptable," but which Orwell says conveyed, at least as his comrade used it, a quality of toughness almost military in its disciplined unflappability. A debrouillard, as this fellow conceived it, could stand fast against any assault that circumstances could mount. Of course, Orwell goes on to point out, a little cruelly, that the plongeur needed this hypermasculine metaphor about his work because he was, in Orwell's scornful phrase, "a glorified charwoman."
My decade in commercial kitchens was profoundly informed by a similar gender politics, specifically the dick-swinging bluster of skilled if dissolute blowhards trying to assuage their anxiety about performing what has traditionally been women's work. "You gotta stick and move!" a chef used to scream at me, as though I were trying to master boxing combinations and not grilling fish. Obviously, as any Gormenghast fan can attest, the chef as psychotic martinet is a trope that long preceded nineties foodie culture. Marco Pierre White, though, is responsible for the specific nineties, rockin' reprobate style of psychotic martinet that I enjoyed/suffered under during my time on the hot line.
When I bought my copy of White Heat, I elected to get the twenty-fifth anniversary edition rather than the original, which was also available. When it arrived, I regretted my choice because this enormous coffee table book was way too big and too nice to really refer to when cooking. Totally a show cookbook, which kinda hurt my pride. I'm glad I got the "25" now, though, because one of the truly great things about this book was the series of black and white kitchen action photos by Bob Carlos Clarke, a chance acquaintance who took on this project on a whim. The photos, consciously modeled on the Vietnam combat photography of Don McCullin, are fantastic - super-evocative of the buzz of a commercial kitchen during service - and the revised edition includes previously unpublished images. They gave me anxiety just looking at them. There is even a photo, which totally won my heart, of White scrubbing the grease from his ventilator hood, which is a really fucking awful job. It was the single most unromantic, demystifying image they could have included and, for me, it was a rhetorical knock-out punch. This guy is the real deal.
The recipes are the real deal, too. The "25" edition includes testimonials from all the bad-boy foodie darlings like Bourdain and David Chang, and they all rhapsodize about how, as line cooks, they had excitedly passed this book around. White Heat may have been marketed to home cooks, but the recipes are written for real cooks -replete with quenelles and turned vegetables and cartouches for simmering sauces and straining through a chinois (do they even use that tool with the slightly racist name, still?). The instructions are precise - fussy, even - and unforgiving. Chef White ain't havin' your shoe moves. And the photos of the final dishes are nothing short of lapidary.
I really dug White Heat, but I had to savor it in small servings. It's kinky food porn - all about the discipline - and the "25' version Is like one of those deluxe, Taschen coffee-table dirty books .
There are some extraordinary passages in George Orwell's memoir, Down and Out in Paris and London, detailing his experiences working in restaurant kitchens. I read it in the nineties, when I was myself working as a line cook and trying to learn to be a chef. The passages are extraordinary to me because they were written in the twenties and they describe an industry that had hardly changed in the decades that had intervened when I read it. The heat, the noise, the stress, the hostility between cooks and servers - I felt like I was reading a description of the kitchens where I'd worked. Orwell was a dishwasher and he describes one of his fellow plongeurs at length, a man who liked to describe himself as a "debrouillard," which word the dictionary defines as "resourceful" or "adaptable," but which Orwell says conveyed, at least as his comrade used it, a quality of toughness almost military in its disciplined unflappability. A debrouillard, as this fellow conceived it, could stand fast against any assault that circumstances could mount. Of course, Orwell goes on to point out, a little cruelly, that the plongeur needed this hypermasculine metaphor about his work because he was, in Orwell's scornful phrase, "a glorified charwoman."
My decade in commercial kitchens was profoundly informed by a similar gender politics, specifically the dick-swinging bluster of skilled if dissolute blowhards trying to assuage their anxiety about performing what has traditionally been women's work. "You gotta stick and move!" a chef used to scream at me, as though I were trying to master boxing combinations and not grilling fish. Obviously, as any Gormenghast fan can attest, the chef as psychotic martinet is a trope that long preceded nineties foodie culture. Marco Pierre White, though, is responsible for the specific nineties, rockin' reprobate style of psychotic martinet that I enjoyed/suffered under during my time on the hot line.
When I bought my copy of White Heat, I elected to get the twenty-fifth anniversary edition rather than the original, which was also available. When it arrived, I regretted my choice because this enormous coffee table book was way too big and too nice to really refer to when cooking. Totally a show cookbook, which kinda hurt my pride. I'm glad I got the "25" now, though, because one of the truly great things about this book was the series of black and white kitchen action photos by Bob Carlos Clarke, a chance acquaintance who took on this project on a whim. The photos, consciously modeled on the Vietnam combat photography of Don McCullin, are fantastic - super-evocative of the buzz of a commercial kitchen during service - and the revised edition includes previously unpublished images. They gave me anxiety just looking at them. There is even a photo, which totally won my heart, of White scrubbing the grease from his ventilator hood, which is a really fucking awful job. It was the single most unromantic, demystifying image they could have included and, for me, it was a rhetorical knock-out punch. This guy is the real deal.
The recipes are the real deal, too. The "25" edition includes testimonials from all the bad-boy foodie darlings like Bourdain and David Chang, and they all rhapsodize about how, as line cooks, they had excitedly passed this book around. White Heat may have been marketed to home cooks, but the recipes are written for real cooks -replete with quenelles and turned vegetables and cartouches for simmering sauces and straining through a chinois (do they even use that tool with the slightly racist name, still?). The instructions are precise - fussy, even - and unforgiving. Chef White ain't havin' your shoe moves. And the photos of the final dishes are nothing short of lapidary.
I really dug White Heat, but I had to savor it in small servings. It's kinky food porn - all about the discipline - and the "25' version Is like one of those deluxe, Taschen coffee-table dirty books .
January 17, 2022
These dishes look so amazing, it felt a lot like reading through Julia Childs cook book, I almost felt as though his personality came through…. Some of the pictures are a bit funny, and the food looks comfort & helpful & absolutely stunning. Can’t wait to try a few recipes myself!
March 16, 2023
This isn’t really a cookbook. Almost no time is spent on technique. There’s also hardly any recipes. It’s mostly a sales pitch for White himself. A paean to his own masochism and self-loathing disguised as a single-minded quest for perfection. The food is presented simply, though I’ll never make any of it at home. I think White did that on purpose. It was a showcase for his talent, which is prodigious. It’s also a strange and surreal requiem for a culture that was already dying out, though some might say most Americans and the British hadn’t even learned to eat until the 1980s. I admit I’m nostalgic for an era that viewed dining as a true occasion. Fast casual and microbreweries have their place, but the onset of a culture that views crackers as a side dish and home made tater tots as gourmet food needs a gut check at best and a reality check at worst. I’m not about to claim we need to return to eating pig’s trotters, but I’d like to see a return to a world in which a sense of occasion was something that you might at least consider sacrificing your life for…
November 9, 2015
Mr White is as elegant and graceful with his views and words as he is with his flavors and recipes. A true master of his art describes his career, mentors and dishes with humility, humor and brutal truth. Excellent photography accompanies Marco's recipes and wisdom: of the dishes themselves, Marco at work in his prime and some often bizarre "glamour" shots including Marco shirtless with a shark draped over him?? Thank him or blame him for the celebrity culture attached to chefs and the increasingly ludicrous glut of TV cookery mania, this book should be seen as a bible to anyone considering working in a professional kitchen or any at-home dabblers in gastronomy.
February 6, 2025
The ground-breaking book White Heat in an expanded 25th anniversary edition. The text doesn’t add much to White’s autobiography The Devil in the Kitchen but the real star of the book is Bob Carlos Clarke’s photography. Clarke shot it in grainy black and white like ‘Don McCullin’s photographs of the Vietnam War,’and it’s superb.
(Yes, there are some recipes but I doubt I’ll be trying any - ‘You did WHAT to the woodcock?!’)
(Yes, there are some recipes but I doubt I’ll be trying any - ‘You did WHAT to the woodcock?!’)
October 16, 2023
3.5 rounded down. The recipes aren’t bad, but they are difficult, and perhaps not worth the investment for the results. I was intrigued by the concept of blowtorching pears though.
Had I come across this book 25 years ago, I probably would have given it, five or four stars, but while it has a seminal place in the history of cooking, particularly in English speaking cultures, it feels somewhat dated. If you have to choose between this and Kitchen Confidential, choose the latter, even though it came later. On the other hand, I did love the blurb like bits from the author. He has great literary style when applied to talking about food. E.g. “A story is way more important than a recipe. A recipe can confuse you but a story… a story can inspire you."
Had I come across this book 25 years ago, I probably would have given it, five or four stars, but while it has a seminal place in the history of cooking, particularly in English speaking cultures, it feels somewhat dated. If you have to choose between this and Kitchen Confidential, choose the latter, even though it came later. On the other hand, I did love the blurb like bits from the author. He has great literary style when applied to talking about food. E.g. “A story is way more important than a recipe. A recipe can confuse you but a story… a story can inspire you."
December 30, 2025
I would be terrified to be in the same room as this man, but also can’t stop listening to him talk, especially about his love of food. His love of food, honesty, and his grittiness make him extremely likeable and relates me in a way, as a person who also lets passion and obsession make me a little bit of an asshole. But also, MPW is a great representation of how we as humans sometimes operate for far too long out of obligation, rather than passion.
December 22, 2021
Marco Pierre White is obsessive, intense and a genius in the kitchen. This book tries to illustrate that through its unusual layout, edgy photographs and carefully selected quotations. In fact, and rather unusually, the recipes are the lesser part of the book.
I loved to read the foreword by Albert Roux who happens to be one of my favourite chefs.
I loved to read the foreword by Albert Roux who happens to be one of my favourite chefs.
September 29, 2025
I am not a cook, but as someone who does art in her free time, I've always admired MPW greatly as a person for his philosophy, vision and passion. This book is more of an art book than a traditional "cookbook", but it's fine - I doubt anyone bought this book for the recipes anyway! I am just here to learn about the great man and admire the evocative photography by Bob Carlos Clarke.
March 4, 2022
This immensely influential cookbook is regarded by many chefs and foodies as one of the greatest cookbooks of all time
Features 73 recipes and reportage from behind the scenes in Marco's kitchen, illustrated with iconic photographs by Bob Carlos Clarke
Features 73 recipes and reportage from behind the scenes in Marco's kitchen, illustrated with iconic photographs by Bob Carlos Clarke
May 18, 2020
I loved it - and I do not even particularly like cooking!
July 23, 2022
Watching his appearances in the MasterChef makes me want to know more about him. He's so charismatic.
December 15, 2023
The most exciting book about food I've read in years. And it's not exactly new. Full of fire, energy and passion.
February 27, 2024
"Revolutions might end up in the palace but they are plotted in the workhouse"
July 22, 2024
A complete cook book. Entertaining, enthralling, educational. The real deal.
February 15, 2022
Tagliatelle of oysters. Terrine of leeks and langoustines. Sweetbreads with truffles.
September 20, 2015
Its an inspiration for young guys and girls who are serious about cooking. Amazing book to read and especially about a great chef how worked hard and reached to a great level and retiring from the kitchen and giving up his Michael stars who would do that. Salute to Chef Marco Pierre White.
If you want to cook Michelin stars? Forget it. Save money. Go buy a Sauce pan.
Only read this book if you want inspiration, ideas and bit of Marco - Marco Pierre White
If you want to cook Michelin stars? Forget it. Save money. Go buy a Sauce pan.
Only read this book if you want inspiration, ideas and bit of Marco - Marco Pierre White
June 30, 2016
Wow. This guy. Wow.....
P.S. If I could have rated it 3.99 stars, I would have.
It was groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting in its day, but I know I have a habit of over-rating books, so I simply could not give it a 4 or 5.
P.S. If I could have rated it 3.99 stars, I would have.
It was groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting in its day, but I know I have a habit of over-rating books, so I simply could not give it a 4 or 5.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews