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The Devil in the Kitchen: Sex, Pain, Madness, and the Making of a Great Chef
Without question, the original rock-star chef is Marco Pierre White. Anyone with even a passing interest in the food world knows White is a legend. The first British chef (and the youngest chef anywhere) to win three Michelin stars - and the only chef ever to give them all back - is a chain-smoking, pot-throwing multiply married culinary genius whose fierce devotion to food and restaurants has been the only constant in a life of tabloid-ready turmoil.
In The Devil in the Kitchen, White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, leaving no dish unserved as he relays raucous and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and even Prince Charles. With candid honesty and wicked humor, he gives us insight into what it takes to become a great chef, what it's like to run a three-star kitchen, and why sometimes you really do need to throw a cheese plate at the wall.
In The Devil in the Kitchen, White tells the story behind his ascent from working-class roots to culinary greatness, leaving no dish unserved as he relays raucous and revealing tales featuring some of the biggest names in the food world and beyond, Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc, Michael Caine, Damien Hirst, and even Prince Charles. With candid honesty and wicked humor, he gives us insight into what it takes to become a great chef, what it's like to run a three-star kitchen, and why sometimes you really do need to throw a cheese plate at the wall.
- GenresNonfiction
Audible Audio
Published September 29, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 14, 2025
One of the best I’ve read this year. Packed with many insight what’s it’s like to be a chef chasing perfection. Also really enjoyed many of the stories of how he trained Gordon Ramsay. Here’s a great quote from the book:
“There were other reasons for me wanting to hang up my apron. The nonstop process of refining dishes and striving for perfection was exhausting. I didn't want to push myself anymore. Even when you have three stars, you still have to keep raising your game. People look you as the top chef and their expectations become greater. It's all about taking yourself as far as you can. It can seem never-ending. In addition to this disillusionment, my cooks were ready to leave me and become head chefs elsewhere and I didn't like the look of many of the new chefs arriving on the scene. Young men were coming into the industry because they wanted to be famous, not because they wanted to cook. They aspired to be celebrity chefs rather than chefs.”
“There were other reasons for me wanting to hang up my apron. The nonstop process of refining dishes and striving for perfection was exhausting. I didn't want to push myself anymore. Even when you have three stars, you still have to keep raising your game. People look you as the top chef and their expectations become greater. It's all about taking yourself as far as you can. It can seem never-ending. In addition to this disillusionment, my cooks were ready to leave me and become head chefs elsewhere and I didn't like the look of many of the new chefs arriving on the scene. Young men were coming into the industry because they wanted to be famous, not because they wanted to cook. They aspired to be celebrity chefs rather than chefs.”
December 28, 2025
Look. I started this book knowing Marco Pierre White is a tool. It's not just that he's a famous chef, although that's a pretty reliable indicator. It's not just his famous "I didn't make Gordon [Ramsay] cry. He chose to cry." comment. There were so, so many indicators that he was a tool. But I was wrong. He's not a tool.
He's an abusive monster. And even in his own damn memoir, he couldn't convey a single redeeming feature of his personality. Spending a whole book with this man was unpleasant, and it's a tribute to his ghostwriter's skill that the book is readable at all.
But being abusive is not actually the worst thing about White or about this book. The book absolutely oozes with White's pride in being an abusive asshole. Sure, yes, he threw chefs in the trash, hung them up by their aprons, throttled them. Yes, he forced a porter (dishwasher in the US) to drink way too much and then threw him in the snow when he passed out, almost killing him. But here's the thing: he's proud of that. See, he was maintaining discipline! He was teaching his employees to respect him! He had no choice. If you want to make perfect food, you have to terrify and torment people! And after all, several of his employees went on to great careers, so he must have been right to do all that horrible shit.
(None of those employees was female, because you can't have a woman in the kitchen; she'll start a relationship with a chef and cause them to get all distracted. Never mind that a) there would be two parties in any relationship and b) White himself married someone who worked for him; it just wouldn't do to have a woman be a chef, you see. But then, as far as I can tell, White doesn't seem to view any girl or woman as human; he talks about his wives as though they were pictures on a wall and he doesn't talk about his daughters at all.)
I could relate so many more horrible stories about him from this book, stories he chose to tell. (This is a real "If this is what he chose to put in, what the fuck did he leave out?" memoir.) But instead I'll just note that the final chapter of this is about all the people he's cut from his life (plus two people who died). My dude, when you have a list of people you used to be close to (in one case, close enough to have with you and your wife on your honeymoon) that you no longer speak to, and it's long enough to make a chapter, and you choose that chapter as the capstone summary of your life, it's time to become a hermit. Spare everyone in the world your toxic-fungus-in-the-shape-of-a-man presence.
(Side note: when he talked about retiring, he mentioned that his third wife encouraged it. I said out loud, "Mati, you in danger, girl." A man who has the emotional control of a toddler on cocaine, who is used to taking his boundless temper out on his staff, and who is also an adrenaline junkie who is about to go cold turkey? Grab the kids and fucking run.)
I did enjoy parts of this, mostly because White was there for some pivotal developments of the British food scene. But I would have enjoyed it much, much more if somehow Marco Pierre White could have been removed from the pages of his own memoir.
He's an abusive monster. And even in his own damn memoir, he couldn't convey a single redeeming feature of his personality. Spending a whole book with this man was unpleasant, and it's a tribute to his ghostwriter's skill that the book is readable at all.
But being abusive is not actually the worst thing about White or about this book. The book absolutely oozes with White's pride in being an abusive asshole. Sure, yes, he threw chefs in the trash, hung them up by their aprons, throttled them. Yes, he forced a porter (dishwasher in the US) to drink way too much and then threw him in the snow when he passed out, almost killing him. But here's the thing: he's proud of that. See, he was maintaining discipline! He was teaching his employees to respect him! He had no choice. If you want to make perfect food, you have to terrify and torment people! And after all, several of his employees went on to great careers, so he must have been right to do all that horrible shit.
(None of those employees was female, because you can't have a woman in the kitchen; she'll start a relationship with a chef and cause them to get all distracted. Never mind that a) there would be two parties in any relationship and b) White himself married someone who worked for him; it just wouldn't do to have a woman be a chef, you see. But then, as far as I can tell, White doesn't seem to view any girl or woman as human; he talks about his wives as though they were pictures on a wall and he doesn't talk about his daughters at all.)
I could relate so many more horrible stories about him from this book, stories he chose to tell. (This is a real "If this is what he chose to put in, what the fuck did he leave out?" memoir.) But instead I'll just note that the final chapter of this is about all the people he's cut from his life (plus two people who died). My dude, when you have a list of people you used to be close to (in one case, close enough to have with you and your wife on your honeymoon) that you no longer speak to, and it's long enough to make a chapter, and you choose that chapter as the capstone summary of your life, it's time to become a hermit. Spare everyone in the world your toxic-fungus-in-the-shape-of-a-man presence.
(Side note: when he talked about retiring, he mentioned that his third wife encouraged it. I said out loud, "Mati, you in danger, girl." A man who has the emotional control of a toddler on cocaine, who is used to taking his boundless temper out on his staff, and who is also an adrenaline junkie who is about to go cold turkey? Grab the kids and fucking run.)
I did enjoy parts of this, mostly because White was there for some pivotal developments of the British food scene. But I would have enjoyed it much, much more if somehow Marco Pierre White could have been removed from the pages of his own memoir.
October 10, 2025
The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White details the life and making of one of the finest chefs in history.
This book was fun to read because I never knew where it was going to go next. The excitement was invigorating and really interesting. However, I just could not give it five stars on the basis of this guy has to be one of the most narcissistic assholes the world has ever known. He details jerk moves like it's "just the way he is" and makes everyone else to be the bad guy when there seems to be one common denominator.
This book was fun to read because I never knew where it was going to go next. The excitement was invigorating and really interesting. However, I just could not give it five stars on the basis of this guy has to be one of the most narcissistic assholes the world has ever known. He details jerk moves like it's "just the way he is" and makes everyone else to be the bad guy when there seems to be one common denominator.
May 23, 2026
For anyone who enjoyed Anthony Bourdain and the TV series The Bear. Having never worked or known anyone that worked at an upscale restaurant, I find the culture fascinating. I really enjoyed the first half, but then found the second half less interesting as he had already won his 3 Michelin stars and was more about the business side of things.
Currently Reading
September 4, 2026'The Devil in the Kitchen'...by Marco Pierre White, with Malcah Zeldis (Audible) narrated by Timothy Bentinck
What a delightful listen! It's outrageous, and funny and I'm learning some fun cooking tips sort of by accident along the way, just by listening to this! It's interesting and fun learning how to do new things, or old things in a new way!
You think Gordon Ramsey is OTT? Marco White is one of his main mentors! Sometimes a kitchen can turn into a battlefield!
This is a great experience!
(bbl to finish review & rate)
What a delightful listen! It's outrageous, and funny and I'm learning some fun cooking tips sort of by accident along the way, just by listening to this! It's interesting and fun learning how to do new things, or old things in a new way!
You think Gordon Ramsey is OTT? Marco White is one of his main mentors! Sometimes a kitchen can turn into a battlefield!
This is a great experience!
(bbl to finish review & rate)
May 2, 2025
Wry and witty, enjoyable to read about a life so different from my own.
June 8, 2026
Working class chef is the rich man’s poor man’s version of kitchen confidential.
June 14, 2026
70s the best
August 20, 2026
I love it so much it gave me access to a world I’ll never be a part of
Or will I
Or will I
September 21, 2026
God this guy fucking sucks and I feel like he would get off by me saying that so I don’t even want to say it but it’s true. He’s awful
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews