MARCO
I loved the romance of Harvey’s when I read about it. That’s where I first heard about Him. The Powerhouse. The legend. Then I read White Heat. Well in fact I didn’t read it at first I just flicked through the pages, looking at the photographs. This wasn’t a cookery book. This was a piece of art. The food ones were good but the real reason I couldn’t put it down were the black and white shots of the kitchen. It was perfect. It teased you with hope. It said one day you could be like Me if you work hard. Pretty girls. Fine produce. Young chefs looking up to you. It was where Gordon Ramsay was born for fucks sake. Marco works hard. He was teaching. He had knowledge. Skills. This was the dream. I wanted to be like Him. Simple. I felt this desire from a set of grainy photos. This was a powerful piece of work. Then I read it. This put the meat on the bones. This gave the stock body and flavour. The words on the page brought Him to life. This man was an achiever of things. The main one being the building of a very large and enduring pedestal. And He’s still up there. He is the future of cooking because he influences so many chefs today, young and old, to keep doing what they do and to push the boundaries. He is also what has gone before. He’s still back there in the seventies and eighties when he started cooking, helping to keep the memories alive of the great places where he worked. And the other legends he worked for. He helps keeps the dream alive as part of an ever-growing brigade of chefs looking to the past masters who influenced generations and changed the cooking in this country. Many great British chefs are great because of Him. He will always be there, one of the beating hearts in the symbiotic organism that is todays cooking. If you’re a chef or work with food and are reading this, you have been influenced by him. You are part of it. Make no mistake about that. Hail Marco!