Nourished

Marco Pierre White

Journal

Marco Pierre White: White Heat

I recently wrote a review of White Heat, which has made me so nostalgic for that particular moment in food history – although the dishes were absolutely classical {Marco having been trained by Albert Roux, Pierre Koffmann, Raymond Blanc and Nico Ladenis}, the birth of White Heat was to become the birth of the celebrity chef as we know it. It’s impossible to explain its impact at the time – like experiencing Woodstock – you almost had to be there.

I expect some younger chefs will watch these videos and snort – but this is a chef who doesn’t need to rely on a sous vide machine, blow torch, or ‘snow’… Even the plates Marco, and others, used during this era have become revered – Daniel Clifford at Midsummer House recently tweeted a pic of plates he’d kept for 18 years! And the advice given by Albert Roux and Nico Ladenis is particularly prophetic…

So. Ignore the fashion, ignore the decor, enjoy the cooking, the atmosphere, and those beautiful plates!  In these video clips, Marco cooks for Albert Roux, Pierre Koffmann, and Nico Ladenis:

 

Book Review

White Heat 25

MPW by Bob Carlos ClarkeFor 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 – and on television in 1990 we had the sedate meanderings of Anton Mosimann – 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 your copy of White Heat here >

Baking

Marco Pierre White’s Raspberry Soufflé

 

My favourite souffé recipe, I found this again when I moved the blog onto this site – I’d posted this for Gemma, from the Independent.  If you’ve ever been lucky enough to eat at Mirabelle, the now deceased restaurant run by Marco Pierre White, you’ll know this dish.  I’ve had many, many variations of it, but none are as good as this, which was published in the Mirabelle cookbook.

Frozen raspberries are actually better than fresh for the pureé (or coulis) which is used as the base of this soufflé. They contain more moisture than fresh, and are much cheaper.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter
220g caster sugar
16 fresh raspberries
100ml Framboise (raspberry eau de vie)
12 egg whites
200ml raspberry reduction (see basic recipes on page 54)

To serve: 1 quantity raspberry pureé, made with 300g raspberries and 100g caster sugar, blended and sieved.

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and thoroughly grease four soufflé dishes 7.5cm/3in in diameter and 6.25cm/212in deep with half the butter. Place in the fridge until the butter sets hard, then butter again just before pouring in the soufflé mixture. Sprinkle with 20g of the caster sugar to coat, tipping out any excess. [See my comments on lining the dish]
  • Marinate the fresh raspberries in the Framboise until ready to use.
  • Put the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and begin to beat. When they start to take shape, start adding the remaining sugar, a quarter at a time. When thoroughly mixed in, add another quarter and so on. [You can check whether the sugar has fully dissolved by rubbing a tiny bit between you fingers – if it’s still grainy – it hasn’t fully dissolved]
  • Put the raspberry reduction (the soufflé base) in a round bowl and whisk in a third of the beaten egg white; this loosens the base. Fold in the remaining egg white carefully.
  • Half fill the soufflé dishes with the mixture, then place three drained, marinated raspberries in the centre. Fill to the top with the mixture, then scrape off evenly with a palette knife. Run your finger around the edge to push the mixture away from the sides. Cook in the oven for 10 minutes. [Running your fingernail around the edge should create a lip, which allows the soufflé a clean lift from the dish]
  • To serve, place the dish on a plate with a raspberry on top, and some of the pre-prepared raspberry puree, or coulis, on the side.

You can make a blackberry soufflé the same way, using creme de cassis for the reduction and marination. Use a little less water, as blackberries contain more water than raspberries. Bake the soufflé for 7-8 minutes instead of 10.

Journal

The Soufflé Project

Recently the lovely Tony Fleming, Head Chef at No.1 Aldwych, entered a dessert into the Best British Dish – a blackberry soufflé with a blackberry and elderflower granita.

I adore soufflés – I usually order it if I see one on the menu – and find it a very good way of comparing chefs.  Technique is rarely the issue, but even in Michelin starred restaurants you find the most extraordinary combination of ingredients.  As a result, some soufflés are simply tasteless and mediocre, some are rather nasty, and some absolutely sing.

After the show Tony and I had a rolling conversation conversation about soufflés and compared notes.  Tony worked with  Marco Pierre White, and I confessed that MPW’s Raspberry Soufflé was one of my top two soufflé recipes, both to make at home, and to eat at the restaurant (in this case Mirabelle).

My other favourite is Pierre Koffmann’s Pistachio Soufflé, which is just the most delicious thing imaginable.  They’re both quite different – one is light and delicate, the other is heavily scented and packs a real flavour punch…  We discussed the various merits of soufflé recipes, and which chef favoured which combination – Tony has his Blackberry Soufflé on the menu,  Le Gavroche has  Passion Fruit, The Waterside Inn, a Rhubarb one, Tom Kitchin has a Gingerbread Soufflé,  Andre Garrett has Banana, and Alan Murchison has a Dutch Mistress goats cheese soufflé…  So many Michelin starred restaurants, so many soufflés!

And so my Soufflé Project was born!  I’m going to work my way through all the best soufflé recipes I can find, photograph them, rate the recipes, and the results.  Where possible, I will also eat the same dish in the relevant restaurant to see how the home versions compare…

I hope we can get to my favourite soufflé recipes.  There will be complicated soufflés, simple ones, iced ones, hot ones, perhaps even savoury ones… Enough to offer a soufflé recipe at all levels.  I hope you’ll be able to try some of these for yourselves…

Let the soufflé making begin…