Marco Pierre White, the first and youngest British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars at the age of 33 in 1999 who went on to become famous as ‘the godfather of modern cooking’ and taught the likes of Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Gordon Ramsay, and Curtis Stone, was in Indian last month. We caught up with the OG rock-star as well as the enfant terrible of professional kitchen at an exclusive pop-up at the Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai. Excerpts from a quick chat over some gorgeous piping hot risotto made by one of the greatest chefs of all time:  

What is the core mantra of your cooking?
I like my life as well as my food to be simple without any manufactured drama. I like simplicity because I think I am not intelligent enough to understand complexities.

But in India, with restaurants increasing leaning towards ‘fusion’, it seems simple food has lost its charm…
Why would you do that in India when Indian food is so good! Why would you want to confuse it? Did you say fusion or confusion (chuckles). But, on a serious note, Indian cuisine is one of the greatest cuisines of the world. And what makes it so is its simplicity–it is simple, yet very technical. It is a cuisine that takes time. When I think of Indian cuisine, the first word that comes to mind is humility. What is special about it is that a billionaire and a common working-class man can have the same meal—how many cuisines of the world can claim this kind of humility? Not many. Moreover, a tree without roots is just a piece of wood…and it is the deep roots that have ensured Indian cuisine survive the test of time. Indian cuisine gives great insights to their past—their people, their traditions, their world going back generations.

Is there any particular traditional India cooking style/technique that you find fascinating and would like to experiment with?
I am fascinated by Indian cuisine. It is a philosophy more than a recipe. When do you see Indian cooks use scales? They don’t measure, they feel it… it is something innate.  

I am fascinated by the way it uses spice… It touches French cuisine but doesn’t dominate it. I have a dear friend who is a Michelin-star chef and he uses Madras spice in his roasting juices with honey… it is delicious! But he never mentions Madras, ask him and he will just say ‘spices’; I am revealing his secret today. (Chuckles)

What's is your favourite Indian dish?
I think a good biryani, not chicken, not prawns, but with mutton and the bones—the bones are crucial to the taste—takes some beating. You’ve got everything in that dish and it is simple, intelligent. You get it in every part of India, which is a country known for its diverse palette, and is everyone’s favourite.

Biryani in my opinion delivers everything that I want in every sense. The emotional impact it has on me from the moment it arrives on the table is unbeatable—I love digging through the rice for the mutton, then eating the juicy soft meat off the bone and then sucking the marrow. Let’s be honest, there are a very few dishes in the world that can beat a good mutton biryani.  

What is your take on the new-age celebrity chefs who seem to be spending more time shooting than cooking?
Most of the chefs you see on television are not there for their cooking capabilities but for their personalities. You don’t see them in the Michelin Guide, do you? There is a difference between a chef and a ‘celebrity chef’. Gordon Ramsay is an exception. He is a chef who has fame.

And what about the Instagram chefs?
There are people who like paddling in the shallow end of life. But I have always found the deep end more interesting.