Over the weekend (23 August), I was lucky enough to chat to Marco Pierre White at this year's Bolton Food Festival - the UK’s biggest event of its kind, which just so happened to be celebrating its milestone 20th anniversary.
After a brief waiting period in the press room at the very grand Grade II listed building of Bolton Town Hall, I was brought in to finally meet the fabled 'bad boy of British food', the first-ever British chef to win three Michelin stars who has trained some of the best chefs in the world including Gordan Ramsay, Mario Batali and Curtis Stone.
He was sat on an armchair which was oddly placed in the middle of the high-ceilinged room as I took my seat on the sofa next to him, carefully mimicking his movements as he faffed with the decorative velvet cushions.
After a brief dose of small talk, Marco began opening up a box of Hotel Chocolat chocolates and kindly offered me one. Aware I was just about to commence an interview with the godfather of British gastronomy and didn’t quite fancy praline stuck in my gums, I obliged but took a careful bite before awkwardly placing the partially-bitten confectionery on my notebook. He had another.
I take a general approach to kick things off, it was 10 am after all: “What makes a meal great?”
Taking a brief moment to think, Marco replies: “The thing is, when it comes to the great meals of my life, it's always been with great people. And if anything, I've been to restaurants and I've had great meals, but the environment's boring... and that's why I say, the most important aspects of any restaurant are:
“Number one: the environment you sit in.
“Number two: service with a smile
“Number three: give me food, to a standard, at a price point.”
Elaborating a little more on this final point, the 63-year-old very epigrammatically continued: “Feed me, feed me well.
“I don't need 36 courses. Just give me two courses and I'm very happy, because I've got to an age in my life, where I eat to live. I don't eat to grow…”
“Even though I'm still growing…” he said, with a light chuckle.
Remembering one interview I saw where Marco was asked what his ‘favourite supper to make at home was’ only to reply with ‘a ham and piccalilli sandwich with a cup of tea’, I ask him: “What’s a nostalgic taste for you?”
Expecting a story about his family life in Leeds, what his dinner table set-up looked like or an equally sentimental response, Marco shared his thoughts that nostalgia, at least for him, is brought about much more quickly with the sense of smell rather than taste.
“Food is all about the emotional impact. It's amazing where a sense of smell can take you,” he reflected. I wondered where his mind swam to in that moment.
“Sometimes I walk into a space and that sense will take me back, deep into my childhood.
So it's more smell [than taste],” he said.
Marco didn’t, however, hone in on a specific smell, but I thought it was best to just leave it at that.
“You once said that 'longevity is born out of integrity’ How has that philosophy guided your long and ever-evolving career in the kitchen?” I ask, curious to see if his thoughts on such a statement have changed throughout the years.
Without hesitation, Marco tells me: “I stand by that. If I think of chefs, they have a bit of limelight and they disappear. Very few stand the test of time.
“And so, therefore, I think you have to have conviction in what you do, and stand by and believe in what you do.”
Keen to get his thoughts on something more local to Manchester, I ask the Michelin-starred icon: “As someone born in Leeds and shaped by the North, what do you admire most about Greater Manchester’s current food scene?”
Again, giving me an answer I wasn’t expecting one bit, Marco broke down the reason behind Manchester’s ‘vibe’ and unique ‘buzz’ into two main explanations: the football and the people.
“Well, the thing about Manchester… Manchester is like no other city in Britain, really. No city has the vibe of Manchester,” he began. “And the reason… Look, I'm from the other side of the Pennines and I can't say that about my own. I suppose it's a bit more reserved.
“But if you look at Manchester, you think of the music scene. But what makes Manchester special, really special, and have the buzz like nowhere else? Even London doesn't have the buzz.
“What gives Manchester the buzz and that edge is very different, is there are two Premier League football clubs, two of the biggest clubs in the world.
“And if City are playing this Saturday, it’s Man United next... So they're always bringing people into the city. That’s why it’s got that buzz, because of those two teams and what they bring to the city.”
“And then you've got the people,” he added. “And in my kitchen, when I had three stars, when I was making my journey from no stars to three stars in Michelin, all my best chefs came from the Northwest.”
As I was rushed to round off the interview, I was eager to get Marco’s verdicts on his ‘number one’ ratings when it came to the cuisine and drinking spots in the city. I attempted to get his ranking on Manchester’s best cheap ea’, best spot in Chinatown, best Italian, best bar and even ask what his favourite joint would be in a toss-up between the only two restaurants in Manchester which have Michelin stars; Simon Martin’s Mana and Tom Barnes’ Skof - and if he’d even been to or heard of them.
“I couldn't answer that question,” he tells me, “I couldn't answer that question either.”
Perhaps noticing my disappointment in not getting a neat little soundbyte to plaster across social media, Marco then perks up and declares: “I say, I'll tell you the best pint in Manchester.I can say the best pint!”
“And the very, very, very best pint in the Northwest is Willy Lees. How good is that from the Green Gate Brewery? That is the best pint,” Marco chirps.
“I know the best pub I've been in Manchester,” he continues, totally unaware this is music to my ears.
“The Governor's House, on the canal,” he tells me as I rack my brain trying to picture where on earth this supposedly ‘best pub in Manchester’ is and how I’ve never been.
Feeling cheeky and somewhat triumphant to have squeezed those answers out of him while being well aware I’m running over time, I try to get one final quickfire answer to, possibly, one of the most important questions asked by locals and visitors alike in the Northwest.
“Best roast in Manchester?” I pipe up, to which Marco aptly responds: “I'd say in the Governor's House.”
He then asks me if I know of the Governor's House, to which I sheepishly tell him I’ve never been in it before. I feel it’s best to keep quiet about the fact that I’ve also never even heard of it.
“Do you live here?” he responds, bringing our little chat at Bolton Food Fest to an end. A brief moment of karmic embarrassment felt like a fair exchange to be gifted a brand-new recommendation by the Marco Pierre White for the best place in Manchester to get a roast.
“That’s my Sundays sorted for the rest of the year,” I thought to myself as I say a cool ‘cheers’ to the cult figure who waves goodbye while popping another chocolate onto his award-winning palette.