Marco Pierre White - Career - Retirement

Retirement

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. After his retirement he became a restaurateur. Together with Jimmy Lahoud, he set up White Star Line Ltd, which currently owns the Belvedere and L'Escargot restaurants in London.

White appeared in trailers for the 2004 film Layer Cake.

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 the summer of 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". 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."

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

In February 2009, White opened the "MPW Steak & Alehouse" with James Robertson in the Square Mile in London. As co-owners, since 2010 they have also operated the "Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill" in Chelsea. Robertson had worked for White as a Maitre'D, between 1999 and 2003, before leaving the group, although the pair remained close friends. The two restaurants have become the London Steakhouse Co, a very successful partnership.

In January 2010, he franchised a restaurant called "Marco Pierre White's the Swan Inn" at Aughton, Lancashire, 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), and Wild Food from Land and Sea.

In March 2010, White signed to promote the Bernard Matthews Farms brand of processed turkey products. 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.