Marcus Wareing is one of the UK most respected and successful chefs. He got his second Michelin Star at Petrus in 2007 and has very recently re-opened his restaurant under his own name ending the partnership he had with Gordon Ramsay. I had the pleasure to meet with him at his newly decorated restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel early November. Marcus came across as someone who is very focused on providing the perfect meal to his clients, and he told us why this is the recipe for success. Marcus also gave us useful cooking tips, and starts this interview on his background and his style of cooking. Picture below - Marcus Wareing in his kitchen - Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley                 Olivier Bourseau: Good morning Marcus and thank you for your time. My first question is about your background. After doing a 3 year catering course at Southport college, you have worked in prestigious restaurants such as the Savoy where you started your professional career, but also at Le Gavroche with Albert Roux, with Gordon Ramsay through your partnership at Aubergine , L’Oranger and finally Petrus, but also with Guy Savoy in Paris. Who has been your biggest influence and why? Marcus Wareing: It is quite difficult to identify one person because for me, they all play a role. I mean in theory, I should really say Gordon (Ramsay) on the grounds that I spent the most time with him over the years but I think all of those chefs played a part in my future. They all meant a lot to me and I think these chefs are big names and big mentors to have especially Albert (Roux) because of what he has done here in London and how long he has been here. I spent over a year working for him but it was the relationship which carries on beyond that makes it different. Olivier Bourseau: How would you describe your personal style of cooking? Marcus Wareing: As a head chef you create and write menus that are things you have done over the last 15 or 20 years training, you start to put a little bit of that together. This is how you write your first menus . I remember I liked that dish or I liked that ingredient… And then as time goes on you evolve and it takes years to grow your individual style and palate. I think the recognition of that is when you are going through the Michelin ladder of one star, two stars, 3 stars. I think once you get into the 2 stars going on to 3, you start to identify you own identity. The cuisine is very much a classic French cookery with my own personal twist into it and obviously my own personal flavours, my palate and not only that, I also think that the seasonality of the food too. The food is moving forward each day. Olivier Bourseau: I see chefs like artists constantly inventing new recipes. How do you get your inspiration from to create new dishes away from seasons? Marcus Wareing: First of all I don’t invent dishes, because mother nature provides me with the seasonal ladder and I think the food is naturally brilliant, It is perfect in its own way. My job is to create flavour combinations, and how I think food should marry together. I don’t experiment in the kitchen, I am not a scientist. I don’t do molecular gastronomy because it is not my field like I don’t do sushi. It is not what I do. And I think it’s very important that the chef can identify what his boundaries are and what he does in the kitchen. So it is not an experimentation at all.   Picture below - Chef's Table at Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley                 Olivier Bourseau: You now work under your own name at the Berkeley hotel providing one of the most exquisite food in the UK. Yet this a very tough industry with restaurants closing down all the time especially in the current environment. What is in your opinion the recipe for success in Fine dining? Marcus Wareing: I think it is an interesting time and most importantly you mustn’t take anything for granted. I think the recipe for success is going to be to have your team, front and back of the house to be so aware of the customer and the client, and making sure that whether you have 15 lunches or 50, that they are as good as each one or the other, and that they are as important. I used to remember when we used to have, in certain restaurants where I worked in, quiet lunches or quiet dinners where you would not do many covers. Everybody was messing around, people were chit chatting in the kitchen, and staff were bored, and I guarantee that the customer suffers. And I refuse to watch that happen. We make those 15 or 20 covers as perfect as we possibly can. And it is about identifying that you must never sit back, that you must always be driving whether it is 15 or 50, giving it exactly the same approach. And I think that is how you have to take on fine dining. I think that is the only way that is going to get you through this current climate. Then everybody going away and talking about it and that it was a lovely experience, is what you expect from your work. Olivier Bourseau: How do you work with wines and are you interested in wine pairing your dishes, or is wine secondary to food? Marcus Wareing: Wine is very important. I think the 3 things that makes this industry great for me is the food, the wine and the people you share it with around the table. I think it is very simple but it is something which has been in France, Italy, Spain Greece for years and years and centuries where it is a way of life, and it has never been like that over here in the UK. We haven’t got that culture and maybe one day we may have it, in 100 or 200 or 300 years from now. I don’t know. But I think that it is important that the wine cellar has a man running it that has a passion for what he does. I don’t get overly involved. I monitor the wine list by value, by the mark up of the wine, what types of wines we are selling, what the sommelier likes personally. Because you find that sometimes sommeliers have their favourite regions in France or global and they tend to push certain areas. I want the wine to be a much wider enjoyment. You can enjoy great wines from Chile and Argentina and from all over the world as much as you can enjoy wines from France and Spain and I think it is nice to see some variety because the restaurant clientele is cosmopolitan here. They come from all over the world and you must identify and support wine from everywhere. I don’t get involved with it because I trust my sommelier. I am very interested and when they come to talk to me and show me I like it. I think it is very important. Olivier Bourseau: What is your favourite wine or wine? Marcus Wareing: People often say to me, what is you favourite food what do you enjoy eating. And I don’t have a favourite dish, I don’t have a favourite cuisine. I love eating and I love drinking. I would say the area that I enjoy at the moment is Burgundy wine. I just like it because it’s sharper it is lighter, it seems more feminine than Bordeaux. Bordeaux seems to be heavy, big, and I am no expert, and I have not tried a lot of things, but I would open the wine list and I guarantee I would go to burgundy first for red and white. And I don’t know why. I go through periods and I would have probably drunk enough burgundy one day and I will move to something else. But I also quite like when you go to a restaurant and the sommelier wants you to try something new. I like that. The sommelier says you know this is what you like but I know I have got something really nice over here. “Would you like to try that?” I love that, it is really nice. Olivier Bourseau: Finally Marcus, do you still have the strength to cook when you are at home, and would you have a general cooking tip for non cooks like myself? Marcus Wareing: Yes I do have the strength to cook at home, I love cookery! I have 3 young kids and it is important for me that when I am there that I share the cooking with my wife. You know I do it quicker than she can, I can utilize ingredients in the fridge at home and I can create a dinner from nothing and my wife can’t do that. It is just a case of making life work at home but I think it is important that the children have a good flavour of how I cook because they eat food all day that they have at school and that their mum would cook. But I can see that to be bland because they don’t season it the way I do so it is important for me that my children do taste food that is cooked my way so that whenever they do go to a restaurant they have their palate that understands the difference between home cookery and out cookery. For people that are non cooks: keep it simple! Buy great ingredients. Don’t worry if the asparagus is expensive, or the strawberries or the meat, sausages, it is worth it because you don’t need to do much with it at all. Keep it nice and simple or creative by using things that you would not use maybe like a pumpkin or a squash. How many people buy asparagus these days? And just keep it simple. And enjoy it. Have a glass of wine while you are doing it, it helps! Olivier Bourseau: Thank you very much Marcus!