I clicked on this click-baity youtube video titled, “The BEST Cooking Videos on Youtube” expecting to roll my eyes while watching it, but I was pleasantly surprised to be schooled in a short history of Marco Pierre White. I am embarrassed to say I have no idea who was he was before this video (spoiler: he trained Gordon Ramsay).
The video is about White being “over it” – basically he just doesn’t give a shit and just cooks the way he wants to cook:
“Why should there be a recipe? Why can’t it just be feel? A philosophy.”
– Marco Pierre White
I mean after reaching the very top it can be perceived as easy to not give a shit anymore, then again there are many people who reach the top and they’re more uptight than ever.
The youtube comments are interesting on their own as everybody has their own interpretation whether White is truly over it or it is just a persona he has cultivated for the public. He did return his Michelin stars though:
“I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself.”
– Marco Pierre White, Wikipedia
I also really liked a statement Adam Ragusea made in the video which I wholly agree with:
“It takes practice to learn yourself.”
– Adam Ragusea
The video is about cooking, but it applies a lot to life in general – perhaps it takes a certain ease with ourselves and with life to be able to truly enjoy cooking.