Marco Pierre White

For me, food is about generosity, and this should reflect on the plate as well.

When you work for someone, you never realise how much you are learning. It is only when you leave and you reflect back on life.

I came from the most humble side of society, and I know what it's like to be poor, really poor, and I was brought up in the '60s and '70s very poor, and I'm very happy flying the flag for the working man.

I was brought up a working-class Tory. I believe, to be a true socialist, you have to be a capitalist first. In my heart, I'm a socialist; in my mind, I'm a capitalist.

Self-control is true power.

Can you imagine, I lost my mother at age six? My childhood ended then.

Whether dealing with children or chefs, they are all giant babies in need of nurturing.

I was racially discriminated against for years as a child in Leeds because I was an Italian.

A chef's palate is born out of his childhood, and one thing all chefs have in common is a mother who can cook.

I'm happiest walking through fields, on beaches, and over riverbanks. Nature is my surrogate mother.

All great chefs have two things in common. First, they respect nature as the true artist, and they are just cooks. Second, everything that they do is an extension of them as a person.

If I think back to the eighties, my methods weren't conventional, but they got results.