Tuesday 10 May 2011

When I met Marco...

I need to get this out of my system, so: "I GOT TO MEET MARCO PIERRE WHITE LAST WEEK!"

There, much better. Now I'm a bit calmer and can tell you about the day in a bit more restrained tone. ;)

It all started with an email, asking me if I would be interested to come up to London for a days Masterclass with Marco Pierre White arranged by Knorr. Does the pope poop in the forest? Hell yeah is what I wanted to reply but I managed to contain myself and went for a more sedate - "yes, I would be quite interested in this".

Concentrating on a question

I was feeling quite excited as I got closer to the day. For me this is on the same level (if not higher) as watching NY Rangers in MSG with Mark Messier as my guide or going for a pub crawl with Willie Nelson and Hank III.

Finally the day was here and I got on the train for London. Once I reached Restaurant Marco at Stamford Bridge I was welcomed and fed some coffee and canapés.

A bit later I was introduced to Marco and we had a quick chat. Shortly after that we were all ushered into the kitchen where Marco proceeded to cook for us.

Some of us, intently listening to Marco

During this cooking session he demonstrated how to make a paste out of Knorr stock cubes and olive oil and any herbs and/or seasoning you want. This is used instead of the traditional salt and pepper and gives a completely new dimension to the flavours you get.

I've already posted my interpretation of the chicken dish he demonstrated for us but he also cooked steak and a wonderful tuna nicoise. The 'official' Knorr recipes can be found here:





All the way through the demonstration he peppered us with tips and anecdotes, something I think we all appreciated.

Once the demonstration was over we were treated to a very nice lunch where I was lucky enough to have Marco at my table. Something that gave me a chance to chat even more with him.

As the day drew to an end we managed to impersonate star struck eleven year olds and got our aprons signed by the man himself as well as having our photos taken with him. Let's face it, who'd believe me if I said that I'd met him unless I had photo evidence? ;)

To be honest, I didn't think much of this Knorr paste when I accepted the invitation - I mainly did it for the chance to meet Marco. Having tried what Marco cooked for us as well as having tried it on chicken and steak myself after the event I'm now converted though. I'll definitely use this on a fairly regular basis from now on. Playing with different combinations of flavour to try and get the best out of the dishes I cook will be quite fun.

All in all I had a great day and I keep having different nuggets of wisdom pop up that was given to us by a very friendly and warm Marco.

Besides Marco - I'd like to thank Jen, Neil and the rest for inviting me along. They probably don't realise what a big thing this was for me. ;) The same goes to Knorr for arranging this day. Another person who really needs a big mention is Roger - the man who Marco had running ragged fetching pans, plates, herbs and all other things that was needed during the cooking.

Finally - none of these photos are mine. I was concentrating too hard on what was going on to even think about getting my own camera out. I was kindly given permission to use these 'official' photos from the event.

6 comments:

  1. Fantastiskt coolt! Jag förstår att detta måste ha varit en upplevelse!

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  2. Jo det ar val det minsta man kan saga.

    Otroligt vilken skillnad det var pa mannen och mediamyten. En valdigt varm och trevlig manniska nar man traffade honom.

    Enastaende att se hur naturligt han ror sig i ett kok. Sekund-timing med pannan aven om han ar mitt i en konversation.

    Star-struck - jomenvisst! ;)

    // Mike

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  3. It was such a great day wasn't it?!!

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  4. Hi Jan,

    Yeah - it was a very good day. Even better than what I had hoped for.

    I'm still just surprised that I got invited.

    // Mike

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  5. Very nice of you to mention Roger -he did do an awful lot of running around!

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  6. With the risk of being misunderstood - we could all use a good Roger now and then ;)

    Seriously though - he did work hard and I think the event would have been much worse off without him.

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Please leave a comment. Positive or negative - all comments are welcome and useful. I do enjoy hearing what you think of my posts, what is good and what needs improving so please post away.

// Mike