Marco Pierre White is new star on Hell's Kitchen

Marco Pierre White was unveiled as the new star of TV show Hell's Kitchen yesterday, a move first reported in Caterer last October.

Pierre White will put 10 celebrities through their paces in the new series of the ITV1 reality show, to be broadcast later in the year.

"My approach on Hell's Kitchen will be about inspiring people and helping them, not belittling them and putting them down," he said.

"When people talk about Hell's Kitchen, one thing they never talk about is the food. One of the aspects of what we are going to do is to teach people how to cook."

At the launch at Luciano, his restaurant in St James's, central London, Pierre White shared his thoughts on fellow TV chefs, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay.

He dismissed Oliver's school dinners campaign as a "cynical" publicity stunt which has failed to improve children's food, and claimed that Ramsay "doesn't enrich my life in any way".

ITV's head of factual entertainment, Richard Cowles, said: "Marco Pierre White is a kitchen legend and we are very excited to have coaxed him out of retirement and into Hell's Kitchen.

"Now a group of celebrities will get the chance to be taught by the original super chef. It's going to be fascinating to see whether, after seven years away from the kitchen, Marco's fiery passion still burns bright - I suspect that time hasn't mellowed him."

Read exclusive extracts from Marco Pierre White's book >>

To view more on this story see the Caterer blog >>

By Daniel Thomas

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