Legendary Chef Marco Pierre White visits Le Cordon Bleu Melbourne

Legendary chef Marco Pierre White visits Le Cordon Bleu

Image 2 © https://www.blackandwhitehospitality.com/ used by permission

Le Cordon Bleu Melbourne was thrilled to welcome legendary chef Marco Pierre White to meet culinary arts students in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the famous author, chef and media personality speak.

Culinary Lecturer, Sebastian Simon from Le Cordon Bleu Melbourne was instrumental in organising the visit and shares his personal reflections in the following excerpt from his blog.

A day to remember - written by Sebastian Simon, Culinary Lecturer

On 7 June 2019, Le Cordon Bleu Melbourne witnessed history in the making. Marco Pierre White walked into a packed hall of Le Cordon Bleu students, past and present, accompanied by our teaching department. We experienced 48 minutes of pure storytelling, an unadulterated view of what happened in his kitchens in the 70’s and 80’s, and learned what made “real cooks, real chefs.”

The famous chef shared stories about starting his career at 17, travelling to London to train in classical French cooking with Albert and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche. He spoke fondly about every chef who had shared their skills, and how that made him hungry for knowledge. His eye for detail is what makes even the simplest of Marco’s dishes memorable.

"I am an idealist, a romanticist, but totally dysfunctional... But I have taught myself to navigate through life. I think everything I ever do in my life is by default. Nothing has ever been planned – I am not that clever. You do something, you get stuck in and you get dirty. It is as simple as that." - Marco Pierre White

Marco says that Le Cordon Bleu is doing a marvellous job, as the classical culinary techniques will never go out of fashion. The legendary chef capped off his talk with these parting words of wisdom: “If you've been given opportunities, then you have to create opportunities. If you're given knowledge by people, share your knowledge. If you were born with talent, show your talent off.”

Le Cordon Bleu would like to thank Marco Pierre White for visiting our Melbourne campus and generously sharing his wealth of experience with staff and students.