Sharp-tongued chef Marco Pierre White: Reality TV is hideous

Sharp-tongued chef Marco Pierre White: Reality TV is hideous

The sharp-tongued chef, who admitted he doesn’t even own a television as he prefers “conversation and playing chess”, has slated reality shows for being manufactured.

Marco, famously known for his volcanic temper, revealed he had been filming “the toughest cooking competition on Earth” when he turned on the small screen in a Liverpool hotel.

He said: “I was fascinated for about 60 seconds.

“It was Dancing On Ice, I was horrified. I thought ‘Who would want to watch this show?’

“It was hideous and I turned it off. I just don’t have a TV â€" it’s like a modern day church.”

Talking about celebrities, the enfant terrible cook said: “There are people in the world that I don’t like, so why would I allow them in my front room?”

Marco is using his exceptional culinary eye to sort through hundreds of couples in one of the country’s biggest ever cooking contests.

Called Marco Pierre’s Kitchen Wars, it is set to air on Channel 5 next month.

Viewers will see confident duos crumble under the pressure as they compete for a place in a specially designed restaurant where three kitchens will feed three sets of dinners.

Marco â€" who menacingly holds a knife throughout most of the seven-parter â€" will send dozens home after deciding that their performances were like “watching the Titanic sink”.

He said: “I wanted a reality show in the true sense, reality where it is not manufactured.

“I didn’t want celebrities. All those people came on to the show to do well. It was personal challenges â€" of course they all wanted to win.”

Marco, who described his role on the show as similar to a conductor of an orchestra, told how the majority of contestants failed “simply because they tried too hard”.

He said: “I’m not difficult to please. I’m difficult to impress.

“Yes, I have to send dozens of people home with their tails between their legs but the majority of them will know what they have done wrong.

“Most of the time people in the show tried too hard and if they had kept it simple it might have been a different story.”

He denied being nasty, claiming there was no need for him to be brutal. He said: “How can you criticise someone who is trying?”

Marco did risk causing offence, though â€" after criticising Welsh cuisine.

He revealed: “I was in Snowdonia and I didn’t have one good meal.”

Though he added: “Maybe that’s harsh, as we were in the middle of nowhere and it can be difficult to find fresh produce.”