Seafood includes any form of food taken from the sea

See also: Fish as food. For the UK band, see Seafood (band).

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs (octopus and shellfish), crustaceans (shrimp and lobster), echinoderms (sea cucumber and sea urchins). Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia (see the category of sea vegetables). In North America, although not generally in the United Kingdom, the term "seafood" is also applied also to fresh water organisms eaten by humans, so all edible aquatic life may be referred to as seafood.

The harvesting of wild seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming. Seafood is often distinguished from meat, although it is still animal and is excluded in a strict vegetarian diet. Seafood is an important source of protein in many diets around the world, especially in coastal areas.

Types of seafood[link]

Deep-fried starfish in Beijing

Fish at an Asian supermarket in Virginia, U.S.

Seafood in Étretat, France

Fish for sale in a market in Hong Kong

Sea pineapple for sale at a market, Busan, South Korea

Gaebul for sale at a market, Busan, South Korea

There are over 32,000 species of fish, making them the most diverse group of vertebrates. However, only a small number of species are commonly eaten as food fish.

The principal food fish species groups are:

Processing[link]

Fish is a highly perishable product. The fishy smell of dead fish is due to the breakdown of amino acids into biogenic amines and ammonia.^[1]

Live food fish are often transported in tanks at high expense for an international market that prefers its seafood killed immediately before it is cooked. This process originally was started by Lindeye. Delivery of live fish without water is also being explored.^[2] While some seafood restaurants keep live fish in aquaria for display purposes or for cultural beliefs, the majority of live fish are kept for dining customers. The live food fish trade in Hong Kong, for example, is estimated to have driven imports of live food fish to more than 15,000 tonnes in 2000. Worldwide sales that year were estimated at US$400 million, according to the World Resources Institute.^[3]

If the cool chain has not been adhered to correctly, food products generally decay and become harmful before the validity date printed on the package. As the potential harm for a consumer when eating rotten fish is much larger than for example with dairy products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has introduced regulation in the USA requiring the use of a time temperature indicator on certain fresh chilled seafood products.^[4]

Fresh fish is a highly perishable food product, so it must be eaten promptly or discarded; it can be kept for only a short time. In many countries, fresh fish are filleted and displayed for sale on a bed of crushed ice or refrigerated. Fresh fish is most commonly found near bodies of water, but the advent of refrigerated train and truck transportation has made fresh fish more widely available inland.

Long term preservation of fish is accomplished in a variety of ways. The oldest and still most widely used techniques are drying and salting. Desiccation (complete drying) is commonly used to preserve fish such as cod. Partial drying and salting is popular for the preservation of fish like herring and mackerel. Fish such as salmon, tuna, and herring are cooked and canned. Most fish are filleted prior to canning, but some small fish (e.g. sardines) are only decapitated and gutted prior to canning.

Consumption[link]

Seafood is consumed all over the world; it provides the world's prime source of high-quality protein: 14–16% of the animal protein consumed world-wide; over one billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of animal protein.^[5][6] Fish is among the most common food allergens.^[7]

Iceland, Japan, and Portugal are the greatest consumers of seafood per capita in the world.^[8]

The UK Food Standards Agency recommends that at least two portions of seafood should be consumed each week, one of which should be oil-rich. There are over 100 different types of seafood available around the coast of the UK.

Oil-rich fish such as mackerel or herring are rich in long chain Omega-3 oils. These oils are found in every cell of the human body, and are required for human biological functions such as brain functionality.

Whitefish such as haddock and cod are very low in fat and calories which, combined with oily fish rich in Omega-3 such as mackerel, sardines, fresh tuna, salmon and trout, can help to protect against coronary heart disease, as well as helping to develop strong bones and teeth.

Shellfish are particularly rich in zinc, which is essential for healthy skin and muscles as well as fertility. Casanova reputedly ate 50 oysters a day.^{[citation needed]}

Health benefits[link]

Research over the past few decades has shown that the nutrients and minerals in seafood can make improvements in brain development and reproduction and has highlighted the role for seafood in the functionality of the human body.^[9]

Doctors have known of strong links between fish and healthy hearts ever since they noticed that fish-eating Inuit populations in the Arctic had low levels of heart disease. One study has suggested that adding one portion of fish a week to your diet can cut your chances of suffering a heart attack by half. Fish is thought to protect the heart because eating less saturated fat and more Omega-3 can help to lower the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood – two fats that, in excess, increase the risk of heart disease. Omega-3 fats also have natural built-in anti-oxidants, which are thought to stop the thickening and damaging of artery walls. Regularly eating fish oils is also thought to reduce the risk of arrhythmia – irregular electrical activity in the heart which increases the risk of sudden heart attacks.^[10]

10-12% of the human brain is composed of lipids,^[11] including the Omega-3 fat DHA. Recent studies suggest that older people can boost their brain power by eating more oily fish, what with regular consumers being able to remember better and think faster than those who don't consume at all. Other research has also suggested that adding more DHA to the diet of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder can reduce their behavioural problems and improve their reading skills, while there have also been links suggested between DHA and better concentration. Separate studies have suggested that older people who eat fish at least once a week could also have a lower chance of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease.^[10]

Including fish as a regular part of a balanced diet has been shown to help the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis – a painful condition that causes joints to swell up, reducing strength and mobility. Studies also show that sufferers feel less stiff and sore in the morning if they keep their fish oil intake topped up.^[12] Recent research has also found a link between Omega-3 fats and a slowing down in the wearing of cartilage that leads to osteoarthritis, opening the door for more research into whether eating more fish could help prevent the disease.

Fish is high in minerals such as zinc, iodine and selenium, which keep the body running smoothly. Iodine is essential for the thyroid gland, which controls growth and metabolism, while selenium is used to make enzymes that protect cell walls from cancer-causing free radicals, and helps prevent DNA damage caused by radiation and some chemicals. Fish is also a source of vitamin A, which is needed for healthy skin and eyes, and vitamin D, which is needed to help the body absorb calcium to strengthen teeth and bones.

Health hazards[link]

Fish and shellfish have a natural tendency to concentrate mercury in their bodies, often in the form of methylmercury, a highly toxic organic compound of mercury. Species of fish that are high on the food chain, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, albacore tuna, and tilefish contain higher concentrations of mercury than others. This is because mercury is stored in the muscle tissues of fish, and when a predatory fish eats another fish, it assumes the entire body burden of mercury in the consumed fish. Since fish are less efficient at depurating than accumulating methylmercury, fish-tissue concentrations increase over time. Thus species that are high on the food chain amass body burdens of mercury that can be ten times higher than the species they consume. This process is called biomagnification. The first occurrence of widespread mercury poisoning in humans occurred this way in Minamata, Japan, now called Minamata disease.

Sustainability[link]

Research into population trends of various species of seafood is pointing to a global collapse of seafood species by 2048. Such a collapse would occur due to pollution and overfishing, threatening oceanic ecosystems, according to some researchers.^[13]

A major international scientific study released in November 2006 in the journal Science found that about one-third of all fishing stocks worldwide have collapsed (with a collapse being defined as a decline to less than 10% of their maximum observed abundance), and that if current trends continue all fish stocks worldwide will collapse within fifty years.^[14] In July 2009, Boris Worm of Dalhousie University, the author of the November 2006 study in Science, co-authored an update on the state of the world's fisheries with one of the original study's critics, Ray Hilborn of the University of Washington at Seattle. The new study found that through good fisheries management techniques even depleted fish stocks can be revived and made commercially viable again.^[15]

The FAO State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004 report estimates that in 2003, of the main fish stocks or groups of resources for which assessment information is available, "approximately one-quarter were overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion (16%, 7% and 1% respectively) and needed rebuilding."^[16]

The National Fisheries Institute, a trade advocacy group representing the United States seafood industry, disagree. They claim that currently observed declines in fish population are due to natural fluctuations and that enhanced technologies will eventually alleviate whatever impact humanity is having on oceanic life.^[17]

History[link]

Various foods depicted in an Egyptian burial chamber, including fish, c. 1400 BC

Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago.^[18] Isotopic analysis of the skeletal remains of Tianyuan man, a 40,000 year old modern human from eastern Asia, has shown that he regularly consumed freshwater fish.^[19][20] Archaeology features such as shell middens,^[21] discarded fish bones and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for survival and consumed in significant quantities. During this period, most people lived a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and were, of necessity, constantly on the move. However, where there are early examples of permanent settlements (though not necessarily permanently occupied) such as those at Lepenski Vir, they are almost always associated with fishing as a major source of food.

The ancient river Nile was full of fish; fresh and dried fish were a staple food for much of the population.^[22] The Egyptians had implements and methods for fishing and these are illustrated in tomb scenes, drawings, and papyrus documents. Some representations hint at fishing being pursued as a pastime.

Fishing scenes are rarely represented in ancient Greek culture, a reflection of the low social status of fishing. However, Oppian of Corycus, a Greek author wrote a major treatise on sea fishing, the Halieulica or Halieutika, composed between 177 and 180. This is the earliest such work to have survived to the modern day. The consumption of fish varied in accordance with the wealth and location of the household. In the Greek islands and on the coast, fresh fish and seafood (squid, octopus, and shellfish) were common. They were eaten locally but more often transported inland. Sardines and anchovies were regular fare for the citizens of Athens. They were sometimes sold fresh, but more frequently salted. A stele of the late 3rd century BCE from the small Boeotian city of Akraiphia, on Lake Copais, provides us with a list of fish prices. The cheapest was skaren (probably parrotfish) whereas Atlantic bluefin tuna was three times as expensive.^[23] Common salt water fish were yellowfin tuna, red mullet, ray, swordfish or sturgeon, a delicacy which was eaten salted. Lake Copais itself was famous in all Greece for its eels, celebrated by the hero of The Acharnians. Other fresh water fish were pike-fish, carp and the less appreciated catfish.

Pictorial evidence of Roman fishing comes from mosaics.^[24] At a certain time the goatfish was considered the epitome of luxury, above all because its scales exhibit a bright red color when it dies out of water. For this reason these fish were occasionally allowed to die slowly at the table. There even was a recipe where this would take place in garo, in the sauce. At the beginning of the Imperial era, however, this custom suddenly came to an end, which is why mullus in the feast of Trimalchio (see the Satyricon) could be shown as a characteristic of the parvenu, who bores his guests with an unfashionable display of dying fish.

In medieval times, seafood was less prestigious than other animal meats, and often seen as merely an alternative to meat on fast days. Still, seafood was the mainstay of many coastal populations. Kippers made from herring caught in the North Sea could be found in markets as far away as Constantinople.^[25] While large quantities of fish were eaten fresh, a large proportion was salted, dried, and, to a lesser extent, smoked. Stockfish, cod that was split down the middle, fixed to a pole and dried, was very common, though preparation could be time-consuming, and meant beating the dried fish with a mallet before soaking it in water. A wide range of mollusks including oysters, mussels and scallops were eaten by coastal and river-dwelling populations, and freshwater crayfish were seen as a desirable alternative to meat during fish days. Compared to meat, fish was much more expensive for inland populations, especially in Central Europe, and therefore not an option for most.^[26]

In religion[link]

Since early times, the Catholic church has forbidden the practice of eating meat, eggs and dairy products at certain times. Thomas Aquinas argued that these "afford greater pleasure as food [than fish], and greater nourishment to the human body, so that from their consumption there results a greater surplus available for seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust."^[27] In the United States, the Catholic practice of abstaining from meat on Fridays has popularized the Friday fish fry,^[28] and parishes often sponsor a fish fry during Lent.^[29] In predominantly Roman Catholic areas, restaurants may adjust their menus during Lent by adding seafood items to the menu.^[30]

See also[link]

Notes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seafood

• Wikibooks Cookbook
• Seafood Wiki

• Alaska Seafood
• Simply Seafood – E-zine on marine food products
• Cooking Seafood How Stuff Works.

v t e Seafood Fish Fish (food) Anchovy Carp Billfish Catfish Cod Eel Flatfish Flounder Herring Mackerel Salmon Sardine Shark Sturgeon Tilapia Trout Tuna Whitebait Shellfish Abalone Cockles Crab Crayfish Krill Lobster Mussels Oysters Scallops Shrimp and prawn Sea urchins Crustaceans Molluscs Other seafood Edible seaweed Jellyfish Octopus Sea cucumbers Squid (food) Sea vegetables Algae List of seafoods more... Processed seafood Caviar Dried fish Canned fish Fermented fish Fish fillet Fish head Fish oil Fish sauce Fish paste Fish steak Fish stock Lutefisk Salted fish Shrimp paste Smoked fish Stockfish Surimi Roe more... Seafood dishes Bisque Chowder Fish and chips Fish pie Fish soup Fried fish Raw fish Seafood boil Shark fin soup Sushi more... Advisory services Seafood mislabeling Sustainable seafood Sustainable seafood advisory lists and certification Other topics Ciguatera Diseases and parasites in fish Eating live seafood Fish preservation Fish processing History of seafood History of sushi Mercury in fish Pain in fish Pain in crustaceans Salmon cannery Scombroid food poisoning Seafood allergy Shark finning Shellfish poisoning Umami

v t e Edible mollusks Bivalves Clams Atlantic jackknife Atlantic surf Geoduck Grooved carpet shell Hard clam Horse Mactra stultorum Blunt gaper Ocean quahog Pacific razor Pecten jacobaeus Venus California butterclam Senilia senilis Smooth clam Soft-shell Triangle shell Tuatua Japanese littleneck Razor clam Pod razor Ensis (razor genus) Paphies Cockles Common Blood Goolwa New Zealand Mussels Blue Mediterranean New Zealand green-lipped California Brown Asian/Philippine green Date Mytilidae (mussel family) Oysters Auckland Eastern Olympia Southern mud Colchester native Pacific Portuguese Windowpane Rock Sydney rock Ostra chilena/Bluff Gillardeau oysters Crassostrea ("true oyster" genus) Scallops Atlantic bay Great/King New Zealand Peruvian calico Yesso Gastropods Abalone White Red Black Green Pink Blacklip Green ormer Pāua (group of 3 species) Chilean Conches Queen Dog Limpets Black foot opihi/Haiwaiian China Common European Rayed Mediterranean Ribbed Mediterranean Rustic Turtle/Talc Yellow foot opihi Periwinkles Common Banded Littorina sitkana Whelks Common Knobbed Lightning Channeled Other snails Sea Mud-flat Korean mud Chorus giganteus Land Helix aspersa Helix lucorum Helix pomatia Freshwater Nerites Inkfish Cuttlefish Spineless Bottletail Octopus Common Atlantic White-spotted Big Blue Pacific Giant Southern Red Amphioctopus fangsiao Squid New Zealand Arrow Japanese Flying Humboldt Neon flying Chitons Chiton magnificus Acanthopleura granulata Related topics: Oyster farming Land snail farming

Marco Pierre White (born 11 December 1961) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality. He is noted for his contributions to contemporary international cuisine,^[2] and his exceptional culinary skills.

White has been dubbed the first celebrity chef,^[2] the enfant terrible^[3] of the UK restaurant scene and the Godfather of modern cooking. White was, at the time, the youngest chef ever to have been awarded three Michelin stars.^[2] He has trained chefs such as Gordon Ramsay.^[4]

Early life[link]

Marco Pierre White was the third of four boys born to Italian mother Maria-Rosa Gallina, who had come to Britain to learn English, and chef Frank White,^[5] who had struck up a conversation with Maria at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds while he was playing cards.

After marrying in 1954, they lived in a council house in East Leeds, and had sons Graham (1955), Clive (1957) (also a chef) and Marco. Six years later, Maria gave birth to a fourth son, Craig Simon. Two days afterwards, she collapsed and was taken back to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, where she died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 38.^[6]

After leaving Allerton High School in Leeds without any qualifications, White decided to train as a chef. He began his training in the kitchen at the Hotel St George in Harrogate, North Yorkshire and later at the Box Tree in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. Arriving in London as a 16-year-old with "£7.36, a box of books and a bag of clothes",^[2] he began his classical training as a commis under Albert Roux and Michel Roux at Le Gavroche, a period that would lead Albert to describe him as "my little bunny". He continued his training under Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire (now the site of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay), moving to work in the kitchen of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons and Nico Ladenis of Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane. He then branched out on his own, working in the kitchen at the Six Bells public house in the Kings Road with assistant Mario Batali.^[2]

Career[link]

On completion of his training in 1987, White opened Harveys in Wandsworth Common, London (now the site of Chez Bruce), where he won his first Michelin star almost immediately and was awarded his second in 1988, before moving on to become chef-patron of The Restaurant Marco Pierre White in the dining room at the former Hyde Park Hotel, now Mandarin Oriental (where he won the third Michelin star), and then moved to the Oak Room at Le Meridien Piccadilly.

By the age of 33, Marco Pierre White had become the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars^[2] in England.

During these years White had working for him Gordon Ramsay, Eric Chavot (The Capital), Heston Blumenthal (The Fat Duck), Bryn Williams (Odette's), Matt Tebbutt (The Foxhunter), James Detalier-Stocks, Donovan Cooke (Est est est) and in front of house Max (Mark) Palmer, one of the few English Maître d' of a Michelin 3-star, Claude Douart, Philippe Messy (youngest sommelier to gain 3 Michelin stars) and Chris Jones, unusual in being an English sommelier in a 2-star Michelin French restaurant at the age of 21.^{[citation needed]}

Although White worked for 17 years to pursue his ambition, he ultimately found that, in spite of his accomplishments, recognition and fame, his career did not provide him with adequate returns in his personal life. So in 1999, he retired and returned his Michelin stars.^[7]

I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me, so what was it truly worth? I gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week, I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself.^[8]

During his early career in the kitchen, White regularly ejected patrons from his restaurants if he took offense at their comments.^[7]

When a customer asked if he could have a side order of chips with his lunch, White hand-cut and personally cooked the chips but charged the customer £25 for his time.^[7] A young chef at Harveys, who once complained of heat in the kitchen, had the back of his chef's jacket and trousers cut open by White wielding a sharp paring knife.^[9]

Marco is seen in adverts for Knorr, stock cubes and stock pots, a Unilever brand, in the UK. In answer to criticisms that he'd 'sold himself out as a chef' by acting as a brand ambassador for such products he said, "by working with companies like Knorr it allows me to stand onto a bigger stage and enrich people's lives... Michelin stars, they're my past." ^[10]

Retirement[link]

White announced his retirement from the kitchen in 1999 and cooked his final meal for a paying customer on 23 December at the Oak Room.^[2] After his retirement he became a restaurateur. Together with Jimmy Lahoud he set up White Star Line Ltd,^[11] which currently owns the Belvedere and L'Escargot restaurants in London.^[12]

White also has a stake in The Yew Tree Inn, a 17th-century dining pub near Highclere in North Hampshire. This was the setting for much of "Marco's Great British Feast," screened on ITV in summer 2008. In January 2009 it was reported that White was to charge £5 for a pint of real ale at the venue, making the Yew Tree "one of the most expensive places to drink British real ale in the country".^[13] White was quoted saying "Most pubs undercharge. You're not just paying for beer, you're paying for the place you drink it in and the people who serve it."^[14]

White is also dining consultant to cruise line P&O Cruises. A fine-dining Mediterranean restaurant called The White Room on board the cruise ship MS Ventura was launched in April 2008.

In February 2009 White opened the MPW Steak & Alehouse with James Robertson in the Square Mile in London. As co-owners they also operate the Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill in Chelsea (from 2010). Robertson had worked for White from 1999 - 2003 as a Maitre'D before leaving the group although the pair remained close friends.

In January 2010 he franchised a restaurant called "Marco Pierre White's the Swan Inn" in Aughton, which serves a selection of classic pub foods.

White has published several books, including an influential cookbook White Heat, an autobiography called White Slave (entitled The Devil in the Kitchen in North America and in the paperback version),^[15] and Wild Food from Land and Sea.

White appeared in trailers for the 2004 film Layer Cake.

In March 2010, White signed to promote the Bernard Matthews Farms brand of processed turkey products.^[16] In July 2011, White's range of Bernard Matthews ready meals were dropped amid poor sales, but he remained brand ambassador for Bernard Matthews Farms.^[17]

[edit] Hell's Kitchen

In September 2007, White was the Head Chef in ITV's Hell's Kitchen television series. Asked in April 2007 whether he would be following in the manner of the show's previous incumbent, Gordon Ramsay, White said, "Gordon did it his way; I'll do it my way. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves. I want my emphasis to be on the food and the kitchens rather than the swearing."^[8]

White also commented, "I might be the hardest person they'll have ever met but I've got a heart just as big. It's about picking people up off the floor and inspiring them to want to carry on 'til the end."^[18]

However, his publicity for Hell's Kitchen did not go as smoothly as planned during an interview for Radio Times' "One Final Question" feature. White took offence at one of the questions put by journalist Jenny Eden and abruptly ended the conversation. The next day, Eden received a copy of White's autobiography, The Devil in the Kitchen, with a note of apology inscribed inside the cover.^[19]

At one point during the series, controversy ensued when White said, "I don't think it was a pikey's picnic tonight." The remark prompted criticism from the Commission for Racial Equality. However, the show was defended by an ITV spokesperson, who indicated that warnings about its content were given before transmission, and that White's comment had been challenged by one of the contestants, Lee Ryan.^[20]

The book accompanying the show, Marco Pierre White in Hell's Kitchen, was published on 23 August 2007 by Ebury Press.^[21]

White returned to ITV's screens to present the 4th series of Hell's Kitchen in 2009.

[edit] The Chopping Block

On 18 March 2008, it was announced that White would be the host of an American version of the Australian cooking competition series The Chopping Block.^[22] The series, produced by Granada America, the production company behind the American version of Hell's Kitchen, aired on NBC in March 2009 but was pulled after three episodes due to low ratings. After a three-month hiatus, 'Chopping Block' returned to complete its season.^[23]

[edit] Celebrity Big Brother 2011

On 27 August 2011, White was a houseguest on the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother to set a cooking task. ^[24]

Personal life[link]

White has been married three times. His first wife was Alex McArthur, who was the daughter of a surgeon from Buckinghamshire, and who worked at his local fishmonger. After a year-long romance, they were married at Chelsea Register Office on 8 June 1988; neither family attended the ceremony. White then met 21-year-old model Lisa Butcher at a London nightclub. They were engaged within three weeks. White says today that he was so intoxicated by her looks that he forgot to think about her personality.^[25] Engaged for two months, Butcher sold the wedding in a £20,000 deal to Hello! magazine. The wedding took place at the Brompton Oratory on 15 August 1992, where Albert Roux was best man, and Lisa had forgotten to invite his father and brothers. White says he knew the marriage was a mistake when he saw her £3,000 floor-length, backless Bruce Oldfield dress with cutaway sides. White told a reporter that she looked dressed to go down the catwalk rather than the aisle. Butcher says of their 15-week marriage: "We went to the Scilly Isles for our honeymoon. On the first day Marco turned to me and said, 'I don't love you.' We spent two miserable days when we didn't speak and he went shark fishing. Then I left." In her one interview about the marriage, Butcher has hinted that something unspeakable happened on the honeymoon: "Something very bad did happen but I'm not going to say what it was. It really wasn't a very pleasant experience for me and my family."^[26]

In 1992, White started a relationship with Matilde "Mati" Conejero, the bartender at The Canteen.^[26][27] and went on to have two sons: Luciano (born December 1992), Marco Jr., and a daughter, Mirabelle, born after White retired and the couple had married at the Belvedere on 7 April 2000. At the wedding, Gordon Ramsay turned up with a TV crew having told neither White nor his bride. White and Ramsay have not spoken since.^[5] After White became friends with city financier Robin Saunders, Mati wrongly suspected an affair between the two. White and his wife had a fight, after which White spent 14 hours in the cells of Notting Hill police station in January 2005.^[27] White and Mati began divorce proceedings in 2007 after she confronted two of his waitresses over affairs and his close relationship with singer/actress Martine McCutcheon.^[5]

White has a Japanese assistant called Mr Ishii, who chauffeurs him everywhere, as White does not have a driving licence. White originally met Mr Ishii while he managed the Mirabelle restaurant in Curzon St, Mayfair. The restaurant became available for sale and was quite sought-after, but his relationship with Mr Ishii persuaded the Japanese owners to sell to Marco.^[25] In his leisure time, White can be found freshwater fishing and game hunting.

White is a supporter of the Conservative Party.^[28]

References[link]