White Heat 25: 25th anniversary edition

Books by chefs are often of limited practical value in the home kitchen. Quite simply, neither their methods, available ingredients, nor dishes translate well to the home environment without considerable modification - a task best left to those with the time and expertise to do it reliably - see, for example, Rory O'Connell's remarkable "Master it". White Heat 25 - credited to Marco, but as much about him as by him - is a glorious addition to anybody's cookbook collection. One of the most influential chefs from the UK, Marco is also one of the most interesting from a food and personal point of view - both aspects covered admirably here. There are a lot of photographs in this book, black and white in the new bits - the autobiographical Introduction and the Epilogue; and colour in the recipes from the original White Heat. To say the autobiography is told largely with a mixture of quotes and very well-chosen photographs is not a great exaggeration and it works. And the quotes are not the usual ludicrous cheffy platitudes about 'respecting' your mashed potato. When a gifted chef says "At the end of the day, it's just food, isn't it? Just food", foodies beware - he's looking at you!The recipe section is beautiful to look at, and a delight to read. I suppose some people will make these things at home, straight from the book - it will be possible but a lot of work for varying reward. The joy of these recipes, for me, is in the reading, the appreciation of their creation, and the ideas on flavours, textures, and presentation that they contain. Each of the main recipes has a fine colour picture and a couple of comments - some of which are very funny - others just little lessons or asides, which you can take or leave - generally entertaining rather than useful. The last part of the recipe section is Basics - no pictures. These recipes and instructions are useful to everyone, even if you think you know them.The final section of the book Epilogue is completely new and consists of many more black and white photographs and comments from a Who's Who of chefs with reason to value either being directly involved with Marco or heavily influenced by the original edition of White Heat - instructive and entertaining.The only thing I dislike about this book is that it won't fit in any of my bookshelves - it is very high - to allow maximum size for the photographs. It is clearly designed as a book to be read rather than used in the kitchen - or simply a very impressive coffee table item. I don't care about the intention. It will work its way into my kitchen time and again - if only as a useful reference when I'm trying to do something new myself. Enjoy!

For anyone too young to remember the early '90's, it's pretty difficult to sum up the impact of White Heat at the time. Marco was the "enfant terrible" of the fine dining scene, "the volatile but beautiful Marco", he of the mercurial mood swings and exquisite dishes.Until White Heat crash-landed on our desks, we'd been raised on a diet of the Roux brothers - on television in 1990 we had the sedate meanderings of Anton Mosimann - and the most outlandish cook the public had been widely exposed to was Floyd! Suddenly this maelstrom of a chef was dragging the food scene around in his wake. White Heat was first issued in the year after Marco received his second Michelin star - he'd been awarded his first star 1987 - and the 2nd in 1988. This book charts that hectic rise to the top, and captures those heady days perfectly.What we couldn't anticipate at the time was that, within the decade he would have become the youngest and first British chef to be granted 3 stars (in 1995), and that disillusioned and unwilling to commit to the gruelling workload, he'd quit the pass and return his stars in 1999.White Heat 25 is the perfect retrospective: as well as becoming the fifth reprint of the original book, it includes a new section written by the chefs who worked with Marco, or followed on from him. The following chefs contributed to this anniversary edition: Jason Atherton, Sat Bains, Mario Batali, Raymond Blanc, Anthony Bourdain, Adam Byatt, David Chang, Phil Howard, Tom Kerridge, Paul Kitching, Pierre Koffmann, Gordon Ramsay and Jock Zonfrillo. Some have shared their memories of Marco, others have commented on the impact of White Heat. The foreword is written by Albert Roux.The book contains the following recipes:Assiette of chocolate; basic mashed potato; basic pasta dough; basic wine stock; biscuit glaçé; blanquette of scallops and langoustines, with cucumber and ginger; braised pig's trotter 'Pierre Koffmann'; brunoise of ginger; chicken mousse; chicken stock; clarified butter; classic vinaigrette; confit of garlic or shallots; court-bouillon; cream vinaigrette; creamed watercress; crème plèissière; crispy fried leeks; escalope of salmon with basil; fettuccine of vegetables; feuilletine of sweetbreads; feuiletté of roast rabbit, spring vegetables, jus of coriander; fillet of sea bass with ratatouille and an essence of red peppers; fish stock; fish velouté; fresh tomato purée; fricassee of mushrooms; fricassee of sea scallops and calamares with ginger, sauce nero; gratin of red fruits; hot foie gras, lentilles de pays, sherry vinegar sauce; hot mango tart; julienne of orange zest; jus de langoustines ou d'homard; jus de nage; lemon tart; lentilles du pays; lobster with its own vinaigrette; Madeira sauce; nage of sole and langoustine with carrot; navarin of fish; noisettes of lamb en crepinette, fettuccine of vegetables, jus of tarragon; passion fruit soufflés; pâte à tulipe; peach melba; piece of Scotch beef, confit of shallots and garlic with a red wine and shallot sauce; pigeon en vessie with a tagliatelle of leeks and truffles, jus of thyme; potage of shellfish with truffle and leek; potato rosti; puff pastry; raspberry coulis; ravioli; ravioli of lobster with a beurre soy sauce; red mullet with citrus fruits; roast button onions; roast guinea fowl with wild mushrooms; roast pears with honey ice-cream; roast pigeon from Bresse with a ravioli of wild mushrooms with a fumet of truffles; salad of red mullet, sauce gazpacho; savarin of raspberries; spaghetti of carrots; stock syrup; sugar cage; sugared nuts; tagliatelle; tagliatelle of oysters with caviar; terrine of leeks and langoustines, water vinaigrette; tranche of calves' liver with a sauce of lime; tuille baskets; turbot with baby leeks, a ravioli of scallops, choucroute of celery with a grain mustard sauce; veal stock; vegetable stock; woodcock, lentilles de pays, with a red wine sauce.I miss Marco, I miss those days and all his restaurants, and I particularly miss the Mirabelle disco ball! <sighs>You can get a flavour of the dishes in this video shot soon after the White Heat was released > http://www.jaxroe.com/whiteheatvideo/

During Bob Carlos Clarke's lifetime he created a body of work that is both controversial and inspiring. White Heat shows chef par excellence Marco Pierre White at his gritty best in his kitchen. To capture MPW at work in his kitchen Bob Carlos Clarke had no choice but to photograph with low ambient light levels and fast film pushed to the limits creating a series of evocative black & white images some are split toned or lith printed.By contrast the finished dishes are lit with the skill of an accomplished food photographer although Bob was more known for his erotic images.A highly recommended read for fans of documentary and food photography with a foreword by Michele H. Roux.

This is a cracking book. The photography is dramatic and the comment from a multitude of chefs shows how much of a mould breaker this book and Pierre White were. He's not everyone's cup of tea with his histrionics back in the day but the folks he trained liked working for him. That tells you something. The recipes in this book are achievable and not really difficult (well I've only tried ~7 or 8 so far but the rest look easy enough). This is a book to get if you are an aspiring amateur chef.

If you want to brush up on your knowledge of Marco Pierre White, then this is your book. Nice hard cover book with excellent recipes.

The 25 anniversary has an epilogue with input from many great Chefs. The recipies are amazing and Chef Marco is stunning humble in his abilities.

25 anni dalla pubblicazione. Un'edizione veramente all'altezza

Perfeitamente embalado, com uma qualidade incrível. Superou as expectativas. Encantada!

En klassiker att ha i bokhyllan. Bra kvalité och läsvärd innehåll.