''White Heat'' is a cookbook by

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

Marco Pierre White Marco Pierre White (born 11 December 1961) is a British chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He has been dubbed "the first celebrity chef" and the ''enfant terrible'' of the UK restaurant scene. In January 1995, aged 33, White became ...

, published in 1990. It features black-and-white photographs by

Bob Carlos Clarke Robert Carlos Clarke (24 June 1950 – 25 March 2006) was a British-Irish photographer who made erotic images of women as well as documentary, portrait and commercial photography. Carlos Clarke produced six books during his career: ''The ...

. It is partially autobiographical, and is considered to be the chef's first memoir. The book is cited today as having influenced the careers of several Michelin starred and

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

s, and was described by one critic as "possibly the most influential recipe book of the last 20 years".

Description

Initially published in 1990, ''White Heat'' was part

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

of chef

and part cookbook, which portrays White's "bad boy" chef image. White was introduced by actress Lowri-Ann Richards to her friend

. Clarke photographed White for a Levi jeans advert and went on to create the images for ''White Heat''. Speaking following Clarke's death in 2006, Marco Pierre White said, "He was like my prop. Without Bob there would never have been ''White Heat''." ''White Heat'' is credited with changing the image of chefs to

sex symbol A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...

s. The photographs showed White in and out of the workplace, including smoking in the kitchen and working with his team, including a young

Gordon Ramsay Gordon James Ramsay (; born ) is a British chef, restaurateur, television personality and writer. His restaurant group, Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, was founded in 1997 and has been awarded 17 Michelin stars overall; it currently holds a tot ...

. One of the photographs featured White with a dead baby shark, which was laid across his lap in Clarke's garden for the shot. Clarke's wife, Lindsay, later said in an interview that Marco went on to gut the shark there and then in the garden, "The stench was unbelievable. I was pregnant at the time and the odour haunted me." Another photograph featured White nude with a side of piglet in his lap. One of Clarke's images of White was included in a set of ten donated to the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

, in 2013.

Reception

John Lanchester, for ''The Observer'' magazine supplement ''Life'' in 2003, described the book as "gastroporn". Sue Gaisford, reviewing the book for ''The Independent'', described it as a "Marco Pierre White fanzine-with-recipes" and an "ego-trip". In 2005 food critic

Jay Rayner Jason Matthew Rayner (born 14 September 1966) is an English journalist and food critic. Early life Jason Matthew Rayner was born on 14 September 1966. He is the younger son of Desmond Rayner and journalist Claire Rayner. His family is Jewish. He ...

called ''White Heat'' "possibly the most influential recipe book of the last 20 years".

Legacy

''White Heat'' is credited as being the first chef

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

, and has been cited as influencing the future careers of

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

red chefs, including

Sat Bains Satwant Singh "Sat" Bains (born 28 February 1971) is an English chef best known for being chef proprietor of the two-Michelin star ''Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms'' in Nottingham, England. He won the Roux Scholarship in 1999, and worked in Fr ...

and

Tom Kerridge Thomas Kerridge (born 27 July 1973) is an English chef. After initially appearing in several small television parts as a child actor, he decided to attend culinary school at the age of 18. He has since worked at a variety of British restaurants, ...

, and

Curtis Stone Curtis Travis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality. Stone has been the fresh food and recipes ambassador for Coles Supermarkets in Australia since 2010. Early life Stone was born in ...

and

Jean-Christophe Novelli Jean-Christophe Novelli (; born 22 February 1961) is a French celebrity chef. Early life Novelli was born in Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France, in 1961. He left school at 14 and worked in a bakery before, at the age o ...

. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' published an article on 13 May 1998 describing White's career, using a passage from ''White Heat'' to say that the chef had a "well-publicized bout with drugs and alcohol". It published an apology to the chef regarding this statement later that year on 16 September, describing the passage it had used from the book as "ambiguous". The passage described White going on a drink and drugs " bender", something that White later denied in court during the libel case, saying that he did not proofread his books as he is

dyslexic Dyslexia, also known until the 1960s as word blindness, is a disorder characterized by reading below the expected level for one's age. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, r ...

. White's first appearance on the television show ''Hell's Kitchen'' in 2007 caused the price of second-hand copies of his old cookbooks to spike. ''White Heat'' had been seen as a collector's item, but after the television show, the price increased to as much as £250 for a signed first edition. In 2008 it was recommended by television chef

Michael Symon Michael D. Symon (born September 19, 1969) is an American chef, restaurateur, television personality, and author. He is of Greek, Sicilian, and Eastern European descent. He is seen regularly on Food Network on shows such as ''Iron Chef America' ...

, writing for ''

Women's Health Women's health differs from that of men in many unique ways. Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not mer ...

'', despite being out of print in America at the time.

Arthur Potts Dawson Arthur Potts Dawson (born 1971 in Camden, London) started cooking in 1988. He started with a three-year apprenticeship with the Roux brothers, worked with Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place for two years, with Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers at the Rive ...

described it as a "rock'n'roll cookbook" in an interview with ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' in 2012.

References

External links

* – official site {{Marco Pierre White Cookbooks 1990 non-fiction books British autobiographies British cookbooks