Growing up near Leeds under the watchful eye of his father, the young Marco’s meticulous love of cooking was nurtured among a family of chefs.

It was then put to the test during a gruelling initiation involving five boxes of tomatoes at the Hotel St George in Harrogate. 

Undeterred, the competitive youngster began to build on his experience and work his way up the culinary ladder. The prestigious Box Tree in Yorkshire soon beckoned as Marco's career took root.

Having made his mark on the great kitchens of the north, a virtually penniless Marco moved to London, where the famous Albert Roux took him under his wing at Le Gavroche.

However, his stint as a commis chef was shortlived after the budding kitchen supremo gained a reputation for answering back to his superiors.

Having furthered his fine kitchen training under Pierre Koffman, Marco’s flair for food finally flourished under the calming influence of Raymond Blanc.

Gone was the shouting and swearing he had endured so far, and thus emerged the imaginative talent that earned him his big break as Head Chef at Harveys at the tender young age of 24.

And the right to do some shouting and swearing of his own!

Ruling through fear (a philosophy built up through his own grim experience), Marco’s volatile temper soon hit the headlines.

Talk of the chef throwing staff in the bin, hanging them up by their apron strings and carving up their trousers when they complained about poor ventilation quickly earned Marco a formidable, yet alluring reputation.

Everyone was talking about “le enfant terrible”.

Now a regular on the celebrity party circuit, the high-profile partnerships with famous folk soon followed.

Marco opened The Canteen in Chelsea Harbour with Michael Caine, Quo Vadis in Soho with Damien Hirst and Frankie’s in Knightsbridge with Frankie Dettori. 

But his private life was quickly becoming as colourful as his menus – peppered with relationship problems within his family, married life and business ventures. And garnished with plenty of press coverage.

Among the tales of ousted diners and celebrity feuds connected with Marco, there is one in particular that attracts a significant amount of attention.

Having once reduced a trainee chef named Gordon Ramsay to tears, Marco insists to this day that the experience was instrumental in his former protégé’s success.

The two are now embroiled in an unresolved row over a reservations book that went missing from Ramsay’s restaurant, Aubergine.

Flamboyant flips and feuds aside, Marco remained a consummate professional in the kitchen, and won his first Michelin star in 1988 at Harveys.

By 1995, he was granted his third Michelin star at the age of 33, making him the youngest chef ever to achieve this reward, and standards only continued to soar with his expanding restaurant empire, until he finally won "the Grand Slam in British gastronomy": three Michelin stars and five Michelin couverts.

With nothing left to prove in the kitchen, Marco hung up his apron in 1999 in favour of his other passions he had previously cherished in life: fishing, shooting and hunting.

He married his third wife Mati a year later, and continued to lead a life of leisure until ITV lured him out of retirement and into Hell's Kitchen in 2007.

“I don’t like the way chefs portray my world and my industry – the world which I walked into many years ago, and which I left several years ago,” Marco explained, moments before he stepped into the shoes of former protégé Gordon Ramsay, and treated the nation to a taste of TV’s most controversial kitchen under his infamous rule.

And it was former world boxing champion and ITV Sport boxing expert Barry McGuigan who beat Emmerdale actress Adele Silva in the Live Final to become the winner of Hell's Kitchen, 2007.

And now Hell's head honcho returns for another heated instalment of culinary capers.

“I’m the first chef to return to Hell’s Kitchen," he says. "The difference this time is I’ve been there before. I know the game, I know the rules. I know what’s expected of me...

“Everybody wants me to fail - if I fail the celebrities fail. We can’t allow that. So therefore they have to listen... They have to work with me. Anybody who gets in my way will not survive very long. Trust me.”