Marco Pierre White to Open Restaurant in Singapore Next Year

Marco Pierre White will be opening a restaurant in Singapore next year, to be called The Old English House – it will be a "restaurant with rooms" in the Robertson Quay area.

Targeted to open in June 2017, it will comprise a Western restaurant serving what he calls "simple" dishes such as duck roasted on a spit with orange. There will be guest rooms above the restaurant, he says.

Most of the dishes will be served in sharing platters instead of individual plates and prices will be kept reasonable, he added. And there will be no service charge.

White, 55, owns several restaurants in London, including Kings Road Steakhouse & Grill, and a hotel called The Rudloe Arms in Bath, which is set in 6ha of wooded land with a farm attached. He's also appeared on the reality show Masterchef Australia in 2011, and has been a mentor on the show for the last three years.

The chef is known for speaking his mind and has a house policy that forbids staff at his restaurants from asking customers how the food is. His reason is that diners should not be patronised. The Singapore restaurant will have the same policy, he says.

When he was 33, White became the youngest chef to be awarded three Michelin stars for The Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the former Hyde Park Hotel. But in 1999, he retired from cooking and "returned" his stars.

"I was being judged by people who had less knowledge than me," he says.

(RELATED: Masterchef Australia Contestant Reynold Poernomo on How the Reality Show Changed His Life)

This story first appeared in The Straits Times. The MasterChef Dining & Bar Singapore is on from 25 November to 9 December, at Ash & Elm, InterContinental Singapore