His reputation precedes him and as such makes him still pretty intimidating, albeit slouched in a cosy armchair at the ever-so-chic Royal Plantation Hotel. “Come, sit down and join me at my favourite place,” he insists, reaching for a cigarette and slicking back his thick, dark brown, wavy hair. It’s difficult not to conjure up images of The Godfather (it is, perhaps, that perfectly hooked Brando nose).

This is, after all, the one-time enfant terrible of chefs who, having attained not one, but three Michelin stars, famously handed them all back.

“I was at a different point in my life,” he explains, cutting quickly to the chase and staring down at his bare feet. “I wanted perfection,” he admits, “and I wanted acceptance and that (first) Michelin star and the next and the next. (The first two were gained at the Legendary Harvey’s in Wandsworth and the third at the Hyde Park Hotel, making him the only British chef to win three stars (and the youngest in the world).

“I enjoyed cooking,” he continues with even more intensity. “I had started early and was completely driven. It was all about ego and I was as it were on stage performing each night. The reality was the unresolved issues like my mother’s death that I had not really dealt with. I watched my mother die when I was six, and at 10 my father came home one evening and told me that he had five months to live.

He sent me out to work.” White left his humble origins in Leeds and started his meteoric rise, a rise that became a dream for those constantly in search of column inches: the shouting at customers and throwing them out. He threw 54 of them out one night. “It was an engagement party, but they were far too rowdy. they were dropping cigarette butts on the floor.” And there’s more, like the case of the £25 plate of chips as reported in the British Observer.

“This guy was simply trying to impress,” he explains. “I mean, there were no chips on the menu but he wanted some, so I did it gourmet style – it took an hour of my time. He hadn’t thought to ask the price.” It’s not difficult to imagine Marco Pierre White throwing a tantrum in the kitchen, not to mention chucking guests out of his restaurants. He is today, however, a changed man. “My ego is now in check,” he shares with what is perhaps a look of embarrassment. “It was all about Pride vs Ego,” he continues now on his fourth cigarette.

“Ego is really about insecurities; if you can’t be comfortable with who you are then you’re not being true to yourself. My mother taught me honesty and good manners and these are what I hold most dear.” His manners are in fact impeccable, and he’s super charming.

The celebrated chef and star of Hell’s Kitchen is in Jamaica staying at his favourite place, Royal Plantation with a Gourmet magazine crew in tow and has been up cooking and observing since the crack of dawn. He looks tired and somewhat distracted (food writer Monica Eng is eager to complete a few recipes ahead of tomorrow’s shoot) but continues, “Removing the ego from the plate allows Mother Nature to become the true artist and this is where I am right now and that is why I feel so much at home here in Jamaica.

Jamaica brings out the best in me, there’s a special kind of spirituality and that’s what I want to see in the food here – Jamaican, sophisticated, but humble and intelligent. I hate the snobbery of food and particularly food that’s overworked. Chefs are insecure and paint pictures on huge plates to hide their lack of technical ability. They’re doing it for themselves, not for their guests.if you force things in life, they break. allow people to simply enjoy their meal.”

Quite a revelation from a man who makes no apologies for once throwing out food critics for wearing bicycle-clips, and who ‘fesses up to three wives and four children without missing a beat. But that was before stepping away from the range, from being a prisoner of the world he had created. “I could live a lie, continue charging whatever I felt like charging or give it all up and spend time with my family.” White gave it all up and rediscovered life – ” I played in the fields, stalked deer, and fished, for five years. it took me this long to discover who I really was.” With all the changed-man spiritual spoutings, it is the irreverence, the sprinkling of expletives and the contradictions that we love.

“I’m a socialist in my heart and a capitalist in my head,” he explains in between mouthfuls of pizzaiola emulsion (seared meatball). There’s mutual agreement, however, when he adds ahead of goodnight kisses, “Good people, Good Food – that’s Jamaica.”

Editor’s Note: Marco Pierre White will reveal the magic of Jamaica’s culinary landscape, including his beloved Royal Plantation come Spring 2008 in Gourmet magazine. There are plans too for more visits to the island.

Marco Pierre White on losing the traditional craft skills.

The problem is chefs want to be chefs immediately. It’s all about becoming an instant celeb. As an apprentice I’d watch the butcher handle the meat, learning knife disciplines by getting scraps of meat off the bone, to make mince for the staff shepherd’s pie. I’d chop bones for stock. I think it’s important for young chefs to see meat on the hoof. You can move on to portion control after a while. I’d have sacks of peas to pod. It taught you how to be quick and organised.

On Hell’s Kitchen.

I’m doing Hell’s Kitchen not to turn people into great cooks, but to inspire them to want to cook. I can’t turn someone into a three-star chef, but I can give them some understanding, some appreciation. We all have different ways of expressing ourselves. I want my emphasis to be on the food and the kitchens rather than the swearing.