The defining moment of Marco Pierre White's life was when he was aged six and his mother died. Soon, his father was urging him to earn his own keep and by sixteen he was working in his first restaurant. White went on to learn from some of the finest chefs, such as Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffmann. He survived the intense pressure of hundred-hour weeks in the heat of the kitchen, developed his own style, and then struck out on his own.

At Harveys in Wandsworth, which he opened in 1987, he developed a reputation as the rock 'n' roll sex god of the kitchen. But he was also a man who might throw you out of his restaurant, and his temper was legendary, as younger chefs such as Gordon Ramsay and Mario Batali would find out when they worked for him. He would go on to become the world's youngest chef to win three Michelin stars, and the first Briton to do so. Here Marco takes the reader right into the heat of the kitchen with a sharp-edged wit and a sizzling pace that will fascinate anyone brave enough to open the pages of this book and enter his domain.