Recently in Marco Pierre White Category

It was a match made in heaven. But sadly Norfolk-based turkey manufacturer Bernard Matthews has ditched its Marco Pierre White-branded line of products.

Due to poor sales, the range, which comprised six products - two ready-to-cook joints with stuffing, and four turkey steaks with a crust - has been axed just six months after its launch. Perhaps Turkey Twizzlers would have been a safer bet.

Bernard Matthews is also stopping its "change your meat, not your menu" campaign, which aimed to inspire us to eat turkey always, not just at Christmas, by featuring Marco and EastEnders star and Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp.

But don't despair, Marco will continue to shamelessly promote turkey and remain the face of Bernard Matthews. He is set to take centre stage in its new "lean on turkey" campaign targeting the more health conscious segment of the market.

Marco Pierre White has no shame. After fronting a high profile ad campaign for Knorr stock cubes (surely any self-respecting chef would make his own stock?!?), the erstwhile three-Michelin-starred chef has now sold out completely.

He has agreed to appear in a £10m ad campaign for Norfolk-based turkey brand Bernard Matthews - the company responsible for bringing the world products such as the notorious Turkey Twizzler.

Entitled 'Marco Meets', the TV ad sees MPW tucking into turkey with EastEnders star and Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, who can't believe that turkey isn't just for Christmas. But MPW comes to the rescue explaining that turkey is indeed "great all year round" and, of course, "never dry if cooked properly".

Bernard Matthews Farms marketing controller, Raj Sahota, is super excited about the collaboration: "We love the ads and think they highlight just how passionate Marco is about turkey and will show consumers why they should put turkey at the top of their shopping list."

The culinary industry's original enfant terrible, Marco Pierre White (MPW), has become the latest celebrity chef to sell out and sign an embarrassing advertising deal.

The former three-Michelin-starred chef-restaurateur and star of ITV's Hell's Kitchen has agreed to lend his face to Norfolk-based turkey brand Bernard Matthews, which has been responsible for bringing the world products including the notorious Turkey Twizzler.

The deal, which follows an advertising contract with Knorr, sees MPW as the company's ambassador who will "champion turkey as a great tasting and versatile meat".

"Through a wide range of activities, Marco will encourage people to move away from the 'turkey is just for Christmas' psyche and inspire everyone to cook with turkey all year round," the press release trills.

While the deal will no doubt call into question MPW's culinary ethos, "the money will certainly be useful to a man who has been embroiled in a long-running and very expensive divorce battle with his former wife Matti," reports the Daily Mail.

The Twitter brigade has already been vocal about MPW's involvement with Bernard Matthews. Here are a few comments:

@circeplum What a complete and utter slut.

@hollowlegs Oh Marco. What the f*ck.

@womaninblack Marco Pierre White is Bernard Matthews' new ambassador? Has he got a divorce to pay for, or something (Walkers, Knorr, Bernie...)?

@sharonecampbell Just when you thought he couldn't sell out more.

@pennyjsmith What next? Crikey!

@craigmorgan Thats bloody shameful (for MPW)!

Who knows, perhaps MPW will give us Turkey Twizzlers with a fine dining twist?!

Tim Payne, head chef at Paradise by Way of Kensal Green, is leaving the west London restaurant to join forces with Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace.

Wallace is setting up a greengrocer-cum-café concept in Putney together with former Elbow Room owner Justin Carter. The duo has bought the old Red's site on Upper Richmond Road and will relaunch it as Wallace & Co before Christmas.

Payne is understood to be joining Wallace & Co as executive chef after three years at Paradise.

He was executive chef for Marco Pierre White's restaurants for seven years and appeared alongside the fiery chef in his two series of ITV's Hell's Kitchen.

Payne also did a stint with Planet Hollywood founder Robert Earl and as consultant chef for Oliver Peyton's restaurants.

Wallace & Co will feature a range of branded grocery items as well as fresh fruit and vegetables supplied by Secretts Direct, owned by Wallace and business partner Vernon Mascarenhas.

Paradise is owned by Steven Ball and Riz Shaikh, the team behind other London gastropubs, the Old Queens Head in Islington, Queen Boadicea in Clerkenwell and the Westbury in Kilburn. The duo last month launched restaurant and live music venue the Blues Kitchen in Camden.

Keith Floyd, the legendary restaurateur, TV chef and bon viveur, has died following a heart attack aged 65.

He died at his partner's home in Dorset last night, according to the BBC. He had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in June.

Floyd shot to fame in the 1980s with his flamboyant presenting style and his love of red wine and gutsy food.

He began his media career as a radio chef on Radio West, an independent commercial radio station in Bristol before being offered a role as a presenter on the BBC.

The celebrity chef went on to author 32 cookery books and present 18 television series, endearing him to audiences across the world.

The latest, Keith meets Keith, where actor and documentary-maker Keith Allen tracked down Floyd for a one on one interview, was televised last night on Channel 4.

Industry figures including Marco Pierre White and Heston Blumenthal have paid tribute to Floyd, with White saying "a little piece of Britain has died with him".

This week's Restaurant of the Week is the Criterion on London's Piccadilly.

First opened in 1874 as the Long Bar or Marble Hall, the Criterion is a Grade II-listed building that forms part of the 120,000 sq ft Criterion Theatre block, which is owned by the Crown Estate. Its spectacular interiors include marbled floors and mirrored walls set below a magnificent neo-Byzantine golden mosaic ceiling.

Marco Pierre White acquired the restaurant from Forte in 2001, when it was managed by My Kinda Town, successfully returning it to its former glory, but his love for the Criterion seemed to have waned over the years.

In February this year, the restaurant was given a new lease of life after it was taken over by Irakly Sopromadze of the Vox Restaurant company, a 21-year-old entrepreneur from the former USSR state of Georgia. He acquired the Criterion as the first of a number of planned investments in the capital, "gently restoring" its interiors and bringing in new head chef Matthew Foxon.

 South African Foxon joined from acclaimed south London gastropub the Rosendale where he had been head chef for 18 months. He says he considers the opportunity to bring back the Criterion "like phoenix from the ashes" as a great honour.

A set menu, priced £18 for two-, and £23 for three course, is available at lunch time as well as pre- and post-theatre and offers a choice of around five starters, mains and desserts. The à la carte meanwhile is divided into sections: soups, crustaceans, starters, main courses, grills, pasta, egg dishes, and desserts as well as a sushi and sashimi section to cater for the restaurant's Russian clientele.

Marco Pierre White (MPW) has returned to our TV screens in charge of ITV1's Hell's Kitchen and last night's opening show kicked off with a record five million viewers.

The series opener saw the celebrity contestants faced with their first challenge, which was making a sandwich, and MPW said the task would give him "great insight" into their technical ability and personalities.

"If they make it simple and honest, that's who they are. They make it flash, they're flash," he explained allowing us a glimpse into his profound culinary genius.

But, of course, not all of the celebrities were up to scratch and MPW took a very swift disliking to Linda Evans and Ade Edmondson, whom he "demoted to waiters" after they failed to impress with their culinary skills. Nice message he's sending out to the front of house division of our industry there but then we'd expect nothing less from Marco.

But, of course, the true scandal always takes place behind the scenes, and according to the Mirror  MPW dumped his girlfriend ahead of Hell's Kitchen in a bid to "find his fourth wife by wooing female fans" who last time round sent him bras and knickers. Lurvely stuff.

Furthermore, in a headline-grabbing move that shouldn't really surprise anybody, MPW has yet again hit out at fellow celebrity chefs Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver.

"Everything Gordon does is contrived, unnatural, derivative," he told the Daily Mail before calling Jamie Oliver "a fat chef with a drum kit". "When he gets his first Michelin star I'll take him seriously."

I wonder how seriously they take him.

MPW's US TV career bombs
 

Marco Pierre White's (MPW) TV career across the pond has bombed.

The former three-Michelin-starred chef-turned-restaurateur had hoped to step into the footsteps of erstwhile protégé Gordon Ramsay by captivating US audiences but unfortunately his antics didn't go down too well.

NBC is pulling his show, Chopping Block, from primetime after just three weeks on the air, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The show apparently debuted "modestly" two weeks ago and fell in the ratings with each episode.

But that's not where the bad news ends. Chopping Block will be replaced with, wait for it, repeats of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." Ouch.

On the bright side of things MPW will be returning to our screens soon with his second series of Hell's Kitchen.

Let's hope the celebrities have their Knorr stock cubes ready when entering the kitchen.   

Marco Pierre White to debut on US TV tonight

Marco Pierre White, our very own enfant terrible, is making his debut on US television tonight.

Following in the footsteps of erstwhile protégé and now arch rival Gordon Ramsay once more, MPW, who famously stated he would never take part in a reality TV show, is now hosting his very own reality TV show on NBC.

Called The Chopping Block, the programme is kind of a US version of the BBC's The Restaurant with Raymond Blanc.

To be more specific, it's a competition that sees two teams of four couples running neighbouring restaurants in New York. At the end, the winning pair gets $250,000 (roughly £180,000) to fund their own restaurant. 

In an interview with Time Magazine MPW chats about the show, what he's like as a judge and mentor to the competing couples and also about what he looks for in a restaurant and his favourite eateries in the Big Apple. 

"I met 10 couples, who turned up on the stage of Chopping Block with a dream. And that dream was to win a restaurant. There are a lot of people out there who've run very successful restaurants who don't know how to cook. There's more to a restaurant than a plate of food, my love. And when you give someone a restaurant as a prize, it's not just a prize, it's a responsibility."

Read the full interview here.

Another week, another scandal for Gordon Ramsay. But this time it's nothing to do with the fiery chef being accused of infidelity, lying about his football career or feuding with arch rivals former mentor Marco Pierre White or erstwhile protégé Marcus Wareing.

No, this time his company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH), has had to admit that it has been forced to renegotiate a multimillion-pound loan after breaching agreements with its lender, the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The group, which acts for 11 of Ramsay's multi-Michelin starred restaurants in the UK as well as his pub in London's East End, disclosed the breaches in its most recent financial statement. Released last week, the accounts were filed eight months late.

However, GRH did not specify what covenants were breached, neither did it clarify whether it breached the covenants in the financial year reported (2007) or whether the breaches are ongoing.

Naturally, the development has had a lot of interest from the media.

The Times reports on the matter as Ramsay facing his own Kitchen Nightmare.  

According to the Financial Times, although GRH's "accounts are for the 2007 financial year, the fact that they were signed off last month implies the discussions between the group and its lender are ongoing". 

Meanwhile, The Guardian discovered that GRH has lent £4.4m to Ramsay's US venture, and granted loans to Ramsay and his father-in-law, Chris Hutcheson, of £80,000 and £530,000 respectively.

The Telegraph found that the two directors in GRH, Ramsay and Hutcheson, were paid salaries of more than £2m in 2007. 

GRH's turnover increased £3.5m to £41.6m in 2007. Its operating profit was £3.3m, an increase of £2.3m.

However, as the Hardens point out, as recently as six months ago Hutcheson told the Evening Standard that turnover for 2007 was £46m, £5m more than the accounts reveal.