Hell's Kitchen

07 April 2009, 14:53

Bruce Grobbelaar
Age: 51

Food Heaven: “Coming from Africa, meat and fish - I like a lot of game meat.”
Food Hell:  “The heart of an animal.”

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobelaar admits that taking in part in Hell’s Kitchen will be more scary than facing a penalty shoot out on the pitch. 

Having worked with some of football’s most legendary players and managers, Bruce is hopeful he will be able to handle working for Marco.

“I will probably be very, very nervous, as I said I think it’s probably going to be the hardest thing, so very nervous…that's more nervous than going on a football field. 

“I've had experience of broody people in the profession that I've played in, in football,
and we've tended to know what to do at the time. But with a head chef with a broody
personality, I don't know how we're going to be, how we're going to react to that. So, I
really don't know what Marco Pierre White in a broody mood is going be like.”

“I think that I've coped pretty well with footballing pressure. But in Hell's Kitchen it's going be a different story.”

“You have to get your standards right for him [Marco] otherwise you're going to end up on the other side of his demeanour, and that's the side you don't want to be on.”

A keen cook, Bruce took up the challenge of appearing in the show as he couldn’t resist the chance of being taught by Marco.

“I'm going into Hell's Kitchen because Marco Pierre White is one of the most famous
chefs in the world, Michelin stars, and if you cannot learn from the best, you shouldn't
be doing it… I know of Marco Pierre White through his extraordinary dishes he's done around the world and in his restaurants. I have not had the opportunity to eat in his restaurants, but I know that he is by far one of the best chefs around in the world today.

“I'm a very keen cook. I wouldn't say 'chef' because we're not chefs yet…I'm just a normal cook.  I learnt to cook in the army and if you didn’t cook you didn’t eat.

“I cook a range of food, African foods, things that you can actually cook in the bush. Like you can take beef, any animal, make a fire, and make sure that it's cooked well.”

Admitting that show may bring out a different side of his personality, Bruce is hopeful that this year’s celebrities will work well together as a team.

“My personality is probably bubbly. I like a laugh…I look at the good side of life, not the bad - once I'm in the kitchen it might be a little bit of a different side you might see of me.

“If the other people didn't pull their weight you're going to have to help out and
see if we can work as a team. I think in a working kitchen it has to
be teamwork.
 
“In a very hostile kitchen and pressure in the kitchen and especially Hell's Kitchen, you're going to have to make light of the fact that you're in there. If you're serious in a kitchen like that you are going to crack under pressure.”

Having worked in the busy kitchen of his local pub cooking roast dinners for the diners, Bruce admits to having a little bit of experience and his plan is to earn the
head chef’s respect.

“I have had a little bit of an interest in restaurants, I've actually cooked in a pub in
North Yorkshire doing the Sunday roasts, and so I've had a little bit of experience working in a kitchen. 

“I'm going to earn Marco's respect by listening, carrying the preparation and the cooking through to his standards, and hopefully not getting anything wrong…The feeling that I will get when meeting Marco Pierre White, I will be in awe, because a
person like that in a kitchen that can produce beautiful food, it's a thing of beauty.”

Bruce’s biggest fear about appearing in Hell’s Kitchen is if he has to work front of house.

“What worries me with waiting the tables is going to be, you're working under not
only one person, there's the head chef, Marco Pierre White and there's also the maitre d’... Your orders have to be in the right sequence.  If it is not in the right sequence and not in the right order you are going to get rollocked. It'll be hard to take in front of people. That would be probably the ultimate dressing down
that you'd ever take.”
 

Last updated: 24 April 2009, 11:02