Nico Ladenis | Marco Pierre White

Finishing off our look at the chefs that Marco Pierre White has worked for in celebration of the 25th anniversary of cookbook ‘White Heat’ coming out, we look at Nico Ladenis. Nico Ladenis is a Tanzanian born chef from Greek decent, who taught himself to cook, never attending a culinary school. His first restaurant was Chez Nico, followed by Simply Nico in 1989. Soon after in 1992 he opened Nico at Ninety in the Grosvenor House Hotel, before converting two Michelin starred Chez NIco into the bistro style restaurant Nico Central. He soon after renamed Nico at Ninety to Chez Nico, and in 1995 he received three Michelin stars at Chez Nico. He was the first ever self-taught chef to receive three Michelin stars. After Marco worked for him, Nico said: “Marco has a mad, mad, passion for food, such as I have never experienced in anybody. It is all about food. He is a near genius. “He was an extraordinary character, something completely different that came into my kitchen like a thunderstorm.” In 1999 he gave his Michelin stars back, stating his reasons as party due to prostate cancer and partly because he had become disillusioned by the London restaurant scene, finding that he could not be as creative in a three starred restaurant, and wanted it to feel more relaxed. Marco said about him: “Nico is in my eyes one of the only chefs who does not only respect food, but actually loves eating food. I think that is why he has gone so far in the proffession, he has a great understanding of food.” In 2000 Nico opened Incognico, followed shortly by Deca in 2002, before retiring fully in 2003. See the other chefs Marco Pierre White cooked for here

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