EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Marco Pierre White

As he opens Titanic in Dubai, revered restaurateur and master chef Marco Pierre White tells Louise Oakley why a mix of fun, friendliness and food is the recipe for a successful restaurant

The first thing renowned chef turned restaurateur Marco Pierre White tells me is that nothing he does is ever planned or premeditated. Neither, however, does anything happen by coincidence; quoting Einstein, he says he is a firm believer in the philosophy that everything happens for a reason.

The cynic in me is worried; am I really to believe this from a man who, aged 33, was the first British chef to ever win three Michelin stars and the youngest in the world to be awarded the coveted accolade – which he famously returned in 1999 when White quit the kitchen and turned his attention to the business of restaurants?

But his tone is sincere and his charm alluring, so I decide to give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he is a famously fiery and formidable figure, and I’d rather not risk igniting that temper over a little White lie.

Décor and dimensions
We met last month at his first restaurant in Dubai, Titanic, located at Meliá Dubai – Spanish hotel chain Meliá’s Middle Eastern debut located in Bur Dubai. White has already established his name in the UAE with the Frankie’s and Steakhouse & Grill brands, but these are franchises; Titanic is instead a partnership with Meliá.

Nestled in the lounge at Titanic, hidden away from the team busily preparing for the restaurant’s gala dinner that evening, I expect White to wax lyrical about his food and menu. Instead, he is far more concerned with the space we are in and I learn quickly that for this restaurateur, nothing is more critical to the dining experience than the environment in which his guests sit.

“When you go out to dinner tonight it’s not just ‘what do I want to eat tonight, it’s where do I want to sit?’,” asserts White. “The most important aspect of any restaurant is the environment you sit in…not so much the décor, not so much the food.

“I’ve been to some great restaurants in the world but actually I’ve not enjoyed sitting in them and that’s why I’ll never go back to them. Food is not enough. It’s about the package and what’s very nice about here [Titanic], you come here, you can sit down, you can eat in the lounge if you wish, you can have a cigarette here, just chill.

But then you go through and have your dinner and after you can come back through and chill again. You can go downstairs to the club [Mansion] if you wish to and extend your evening. I like things which are multi-dimensional,” says White.

Ultimately, he wants his diners to enjoy themselves. “For me it’s all about having fun, enjoying yourself, that’s what’s important. How many times have you been to a restaurant where the food’s very nice but actually it’s quite boring, you don’t want to be there and you leave.

We’re in the business of selling fun, we’re in the business of selling a night out, that’s what it’s all about really and I think the more dimensions you can add to that, the better,” he asserts.

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A taste of Titanic
One dimension, however, is of course the food, and Titanic – which derives from White’s former restaurant of the same name in London’s Regent Palace Hotel in the 1990s – delivers a cuisine inspired by the “sunshine flavours” of Spain and the surrounding Mediterranean.

Menu highlights include carpaccio of scallops, fresh ginger and coriander to start; Magret of duck Marco Polo, white peaches and Sauternes roasting juices for main course; and hot raspberry soufflé for dessert.

There is also a choice of fish and seafood, with White explaining that the grilled lobster served three ways – a choice of thermidor, mornay or with garlic and herbs – exemplifies his approach to simple cuisine.

He is adamant that when presented with a menu, people will prefer to choose “something that they understand…rather than something which is all a bit posh and messed around with”.

“Fundamentally we are straightforward creatures. People like to play safe especially when they’re spending their hard-earned cash, they don’t want risk. I don’t like risk, I’m quite boring, I like straightforwardness,” he claims.

White’s aversion to risk may well be a throwback to his Michelin days. The path to three-stars is, he acknowledges, the “most exciting journey of any young chef’s life”, but the end result is one he recalls with a tinge of bitterness.

“Let me tell you something – turning yourself into the Christmas fairy is not fun, you don’t want to sit at the top of the tree by yourself and the people you cook for they’re strangers because you’re so expensive.

My average bill in the 90s was GBP 300 ($470) a head so that was way more than the average person earns a week and you cook for complete strangers. What happens is when you get to that three-star level it’s systematic, zero risk, you become this well-oiled machine, you’re almost soulless – everything that I’m against within restaurants. It’s production line cuisine because your risks are so great, you can’t take risks anymore because you have so much to lose.”

Much as White left this technical world behind him 13 years ago, it surely shapes him even now. He admits that he kept Titanic’s first menu “very simple and straightforward” in the interests of “consistency”.

“Where you will be in six to 12 months time is very different – what I’m a believer in is in the end the customer writes out the menu not the chef. They tell you what they want. It will evolve. I want it to go more Mediterranean, that’s me personally,” he adds.

“It’s about evolving, it’s about building your systems, it’s about building your team, it’s about creating a consistency,” he says, unwittingly referencing one of the most common complaints in Dubai’s restaurants – deviating standards and unreliable service.

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Restaurant success
White’s reputation in the emirates is on the line with this restaurant, so how will Titanic meet his expectations when he won’t even be there himself to dictate them?

“Consistency is [achieved] by starting in a very simple way and building your foundation, getting to know the staff, the staff getting to know yourself and slowly building that jigsaw, building that team and as a team’s confidence grows and understanding of each other grows, then you can start to evolve.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about trying to be clever, I’ve been to restaurants sometimes and chefs where they fail is they try too hard a lot of the time and therefore yes they can do it, can the other 10 chefs in the kitchen who are working for them do it?

“There’s not one chef in the kitchen, there’s 10, 12, 15, 20, it’s about getting them to understand your philosophy, to understand your want, to understand what is expected day-in day-out, month-in month-out, year in year out.”

His advice is: “Don’t be greedy. Don’t take too many covers. Build your systems slowly. It’s about being kind to the client. At the end of the day, there’s nothing worse than feeling rushed. There’s nothing worse than feeling like you’ve been turned off your table…you’re being pushed in and you’re being pushed out”.

Service to smile about
This brings us to the topic of service and again, White’s approach is far removed from that which he had to adopt two decades ago. There’s two things he hates: having to wait for a table, and being rushed once he’s there.

“For me the most important aspect of service is a smile. It’s friendliness. Nothing is too much trouble. You must have witnessed it in your life before where service is very formal, it’s very professional, it’s quite soulless and it makes you feel quite intimidated.

“It’s too professional in a way where they make a point of showing off their technical ability – that’s when I don’t enjoy service. It’s when they are showing off their technical ability, they’re very slick but they’re soulless, there’s no personality there, there’s no smile there, there’s no welcome there.”

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Setting the scene
“As I said the most important aspect of a restaurant is the environment you sit in,” White continues. “Number two the welcome that you receive – they throw their arms over to you metaphorically speaking, they sit you down and make you feel comfortable, make you feel welcome, so before you’ve even seen a menu, before you’ve even had a drink, you’re feeling comfortable and once you start to feel comfortable then you start to enjoy yourself.

It’s as simple as that. And in a way you let them guide you – because you’re so trusting of them, because you have confidence in them, you’re like a puppy dog, you want to roll over and have your tummy scratched and say look – give me whatever you want to give me.”

And as long as the guest isn’t rushed and they have an enjoyable evening, then the restaurant is well on its way to being perceived as good value, whatever the price point.

“If you’re in the restaurant for three hours and you spend GBP 300, that’s GBP 100 an hour isn’t it – that’s how I value things anyway, I look at how long was I there, how much did I spend.

I’m no different to anybody else in this world, when I get my bill at the end of it I look at it and I ask myself a very simple question, did that represent value? It’s not whether its GBP200 or 300 or 400 or 500, it’s not about that – it’s did it represent value, the package, and that’s where a lot of people get it wrong. It’s about being spoilt really.”

I’m starting to feel a little spoilt myself; I’ve been with the culinary genius, who achieved what most chefs only dream of, for close to an hour now, and later am to be one of the first guests to sample a taste of Titanic. White is spoiling the emirates too, he is set to open his Wheelers seafood restaurant brand in DIFC in September and of future expansion, tells me he has “lots of plans…all will be revealed in time”.

There, I’ve caught him on that White lie: it seems even the most revered of restaurateurs must plan ahead from time to time.