This season of MasterChef Australia: Fans and Favourites has already been jam packed with talent.
Aside from our esteemed judges — Andy Allen, Jock Zonfrillo and Melissa Leong — we’ve also got some powerhouse names competing on the 14th season of the beloved cooking competition show in our Favourites.
With talent like Sarah Todd, Julie Goodwin and Billie McKay back in the kitchen, things have been hot from the jump, and the heat’s only going to get dialled up even more when guest judge Marco Pierre White arrives.
Who Is Marco Pierre White?
Marco Pierre White is a British chef and restauranteur who is often credited as being the first celebrity chef. He is known as the enfant terrible of modern gastronomy, due to his temperamental manner and controversial reputation.
A trailblazer in the industry, by the age of 28, White had already been awarded two Michelin stars, and was at the time the youngest chef to do so.
At the age of 33 in January 1995, White then became the first, and youngest, British chef to be awarded with three Michelin stars.
Over the years, White has made headlines for being tough and unpredictable, both with patrons of his restaurants and with his staff.
While working in the kitchen early on in his career, a patron requested a side of chips with his lunch, which wasn’t on the menu. White agreed, taking the time to hand-cute and personally cook the chips for the customer, only to charge him £25 for his time.
“He hadn’t thought to ask the price,” White told The Guardian, years later.
White has worked with many of the most notable celebrity chefs in the industry, like Mario Batali, Heston Blumenthal, Shannon Bennett, Gordon Ramsay, and Curtis Stone.
In fact, White once made Ramsay — a notoriously tough chef himself — cry, while he was training under White.
“I don’t recall what he’d done wrong but I yelled at him and he lost it,” White recalled to The Independent. “Gordon crouched down in the corner of the kitchen, buried his head in his hands and started sobbing.”
In 1999, White retired from the kitchen and returned all his Michelin stars, turning his attention to becoming a restauranteur. He now has several successful restaurants and has appeared on numerous cooking competition series.
Marco Pierre White MasterChef Australia Controversy
For a time, White was boycotting MasterChef Australia due to a personal conflict he was having with then-judge Matt Preston.
Preston had made comments about White’s son spending $500,000 of his father’s money on sex workers and drugs, calling Marco White Jr a “trust fund babe”.
White retaliated by joining Hell’s Kitchen Australia, and swore revenge on Preston.
White told the Adelaide Advertiser: “No one should ever say that about someone else’s children. I will never forgive that man,” adding: “With my hand on my mother’s grave I will get that man.”
Of course, Preston is no longer a judge on MasterChef Australia, which means the coast is clear for White to make his return to the kitchen.
What new challenges does the godfather of modern cooking have in store for our MasterChef Australia contestants? We’ll have to tune in to find out, but if we know White, we’re sure it’ll be something showstopping.
MasterChef Australia airs at 7.30pm Sunday-Thursdays, only on 10 and 10 Play on Demand.
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