The Fairmont Bab Al Bahr Hotel opens in the capital this autumn. It is the first in an onslaught of new hotels launching in Abu Dhabi in the coming months, but one thing in particular marks it out from the rest: the arrival of two new restaurants backed by legendary British chef Marco Pierre White – Frankie’s Italian Bar & Grill and a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse.
Back in the ’90s, White was the enfant terrible of the culinary world. Raised on a Yorkshire council estate, at the age of six he witnessed his mother suffer a fatal brain hemorrhage. Some 27 years later, the volatile and gifted Marco became the first British chef to gain three Michelin stars and, at the time, the youngest ever to do so. It was a rise as dramatic as his sudden retirement in 1999, when he swapped Michelin stars for a fishing rod and country anonymity. So does he harbour any regrets?
‘The reality is that when you work six days a week for 80-100 hours, you program yourself. You don’t question it. That little kitchen becomes your world and you’re quite fearful outside of that world. I felt that I had three options. My first was to continue working behind the stove six days a week, defending my reputation and my Michelin stars, cooking for my clients, charging very high prices and having my status. Number two was to live a lie, pretend I cook when I don’t cook, charge high prices and question my integrity and everything I’ve worked for in my life. The answer was number three: actually give back my stars, let go of my status, have my freedom and be able to do what I wish to do in my life without questioning my integrity.’
Certainly it is difficult to think of the wild-haired, stern-eyed Marco as ‘fearful’. His reputation as the wild man of the kitchen is legendary. He is the man who made a young Gordon Ramsay cry (‘He made himself cry,’ is the trademark response) and who fought with customers when they complained about his food. Legend has it that when a young chef moaned to Marco about the heat in the kitchen, White cut open the back of his jacket and trousers using a paring knife. Caring boss was never on his CV. It is something he clearly thrives on, but ultimately refutes. ‘As I said many times in my life, most of my reputation is a product of exaggeration and ignorance. I’ve been condemned time and again for being controversial, just because I stood up to the hierarchy of my industry and questioned everything. But I always put foundation behind my statements. I was a boy who fought for what I believed in. A lot of the chefs today have the status they have because I broke that door down; I took it into the public eye because of what I fought for.’ Perhaps you could also add martyr to his CV, then.
In recent times he has stepped back into the public eye as the face of British reality cooking show Hell’s Kitchen. Celebrity chefdom was the house that Marco built, it’s only right that he should take the helm. But, after so many years, why?
‘I didn’t like the way certain people portrayed my industry. When I walk onto the stage I am a cook; I’m a chef flying the flag for my industry. I don’t swear, I don’t belittle, I don’t bully. I am an ambassador to my industry now and therefore I have to portray myself in a light that encourages young people, boys and girls, to come into my industry.’
This appears to be a dig at his former trainee, Ramsay, the previous incumbent of Hell’s Kitchen and a popular target for Marco’s ire. In fairness, it is a blaze stoked by every journalist who ever speaks to him, inevitably reaching for the ‘Ramsay bellows’ should Marco’s Latin fire blow out. Their feud allegedly began when Ramsay brought a TV crew to his former mentor’s wedding, but White will tell you that it’s more a point of pride.
‘Don’t put your name above the door as the main brand,’ he growls. ‘If you put your name above the door as the main brand, then people’s expectations are that you will be there. Why have Manchester United been so successful for the last 20 years? Because Alex Ferguson is on the touchline every Saturday afternoon. If he wasn’t on the touchline every afternoon, would they get the results they get?’ It is a statement more than a question. When asked about Verre, Ramsay’s Dubai-based outpost, White’s response is more succinct: ‘I only hear that it is quiet.’
You could argue that in branding his Marco Pierre White Steakhouse he’s no different to Ramsay, but in Marco’s eyes, by giving back his stars, he has become untouchable. ‘I think, when you have a three-star restaurant, you have to be behind your stove. If you haven’t got Michelin stars, you don’t have to be. You haven’t got that pressure to protect your position. I think when people are paying big money they expect the chef to be behind the stove.’
The ‘stove’ is mentioned a lot. He’s also fond of the word ‘brand’, praising Abu Dhabi as ‘the eighth wonder of the world’ for its marketing strategy. It is a gentle reminder that Marco is a businessman these days. He oversees the menu, but isn’t involved in the cooking: ‘I haven’t been behind the stove for 10 years,’ he declares. Freed from the shackles of the critic’s gaze, he took a step back and looked at the market. ‘Not everyone wants gastronomy, where you perch on the edge of your chair paying high prices,’ he observed. Of course, as the first man in England to sell the GBP5 (Dhs30) pint at his Yew Tree Inn, it swings both ways.
His Frankie’s restaurants, co-owned with former jockey Frankie Dettori, have a simple premise. ‘No matter which country you’re in, everyone wants a night out. A lot of restaurants serve very good food, but to be honest, they’re boring,’ he says. ‘Frankie’s is funny, it’s busy, it’s lively, it’s romantic.’ The key to a good restaurant is romance, Marco argues, but can you really have a romantic steakhouse? ‘Of course you can!’ he snorts.
White is a mass of curiosities, not least his penchant for dressing like the landed gentry – all tweed and designer wellies. ‘Personally, I don’t have ambition,’ he proclaims at one point, with a gentleman’s distaste for the word. Then he reverses: ‘If I have ambition it is by default. I like doing things well.’ He stops to demand a cup of coffee from his ever-present personal assistant, Mr Ishi (part Parker from Thunderbirds, part Man Friday), and we continue.
‘I think food critics are really important,’ he tells us, casually upping the controversy metre a notch. ‘If it wasn’t for the food critics and guides, a lot of chefs wouldn’t have the status and credibility they have.’ He speaks in an ipso-facto tone, accompanied by the occasional clink of a coffee cup, and he’s right, of course. People need a guide, although perhaps not a Michelin one, it would seem. ‘When you think that when they started, the philosophy of Michelin was to create a service to people who bought their tyres, today you’ve got to really question their criterion. Their philosophy was that to win three stars, it takes many years to prove consistency and that the chef has to be the proprietor and he has to be behind the stove. Well that’s not the case anymore is it? The goalposts have moved.’
One in the eye for Michelin, Ramsay and everyone else, but Marco is doing pretty well without anyone’s help. This is, in part, down to an admirable legacy. Ramsay, like a number of famous chefs – Heston Blumenthal, Bryn Williams, even Jamie Oliver – learnt his trade under White’s guidance. But as a self-elected ‘ambassador’, is he not now part of the establishment he rebelled against?
‘No. I don’t look at myself as part of the hierarchy because I am not a member of any organisation. As I say, I am an ambassador. I am not a member of the academy. I am not a member of any chefs’ clubs or anything. I just live my life quietly under the radar, doing my own little thing. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have a love affair with my industry, that I don’t respect what my industry gave me, the opportunities and the people it has introduced me to and the security it’s given me and my family. You have to give back.’
Of course his ‘little thing’ now includes being a single working dad. After three tumultuous marriages, his two sons are now his abiding joy. ‘I spend a lot of time with my boys,’ he says. ‘That was one of the main reasons I gave up cooking.’ His autumn trip to the UAE will be combined with a family holiday, but how do his kids view their celebrity dad? ‘They think I’m quite rock and roll. They think I’m quite cool compared to some of their friends’ parents,’ he says proudly.
Marco clearly enjoys the quiet life. Reputation aside, he is an utter gentleman to talk to. His deep-throated voice rumbles on with calm, gentle precision and he is both engaging and refreshingly forthright. He may have his bugbears, but when the ‘ambassador’ arrives in Abu Dhabi to oversee his much-anticipated new restaurants, you could do worse than to pay the man respect. After all, he is Marco Pierre White.
Coming soon…
Steakhouse
Fairmont Bab Al Bahr may have its own Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, but elsewhere, the new JW Marriott, located opposite the Fairmont and Qaryat Al Beri Souk, is also rumoured to be getting ‘a world-class steakhouse’. All bets are that a repeat of its Dubai hotel’s excellent JW Steakhouse is on the cards, although we won’t see it until late next year. Meanwhile, the new Yas Island Rotana is set to open before the F1 starts in November, with their Blue Grill Steakhouse holding promise.
Bar-restaurant
All gloves are off in the bar wars, with the JW Marriott rumoured to be opening a German bar/restaurant ‘of the Hofbrauhaus variety’. Meanwhile, the old hands are fighting back, with the InterContinental set to turn the old A.M.P.M nightclub into a Belgian café (due to open in December), rumoured to be similar to the beer café at Dubai’s Crowne Plaza Festival City, but more ‘cosmopolitan’. And, finally, Crowne Plaza Yas Island is due to open Stills, a European gastro-pub, and Vino, its new wine bar in November.
Indian
The Yas Island Rotana is planning on serving up Rangoli, a chic new North and South Indian restaurant with a contemporary edge, but, perhaps the most excitement is being reserved for Atul Kochhar’s forthcoming Michelin-starred Benares restaurant, although we will have to wait until the 2012 opening of Renaissance Central Market to see this.
The rest…
The Fairmont Bab Al Bahr has Frankie’s, but elsewhere JW Marriott is rumoured to be building a new authentic Italian restaurant, probably along the lines of Dubai’s Cincina, while Crowne Plaza Abu Dhabi is due to open Spacca Napoli this winter. Meanwhile Crowne Plaza Yas Island is brewing up a new Lebanese restaurant in the form of Barouk, while its mainland Crowne Plaza rivals are due to open a new Asian fusion restaurant, Cho Gao, in December.
