From His Wisconsin Kitchen to Big City Restaurants

But Italian food is clearly his love.

Chef Michael White's Gamberoni alla Piastra.

(Courtesy Thomas Krakowiak )

"You know, going to Italy for the first time, back in 1993, I had this idea of staying about six months and all of a sudden I got there -- I mean, let me tell you, it's not all about food, when you see these great, beautiful Italian chicks, with this curly, long hair, and it's about that too. Because you know, I was 20 years old," he said, adding, "But it's really about the food."

Italian food, White said, is the basis for many other ethnic foods.

"If you cook Italian food or French food, you could cook anything after that. You could cook Turkish, you could cook Russian, because it's the method and technique, the process," he said. "You know, working in Italy for me was one of the great eye-opening experiences. It's about working with cheese that just came from the dairy. ... When we'd make chicken stock, I'd go and buy the chicken bones. You don't get to pick out your chicken bones in New York City or Chicago and San Francisco, at least I didn't."

While many chefs get their start just messing around in the kitchen, going to school is very important, White said. Future chefs need to learn their techniques and even the sounds of the kitchen.

"I mean, you have to start at the grass roots, below, cooking, cleaning vegetables. And if I took 10 guys, 10 girls out of cooking school, brought them into the kitchen, [and if] I told them, 'Here's an artichoke, you clean it,' I bet you six or seven wouldn't know how to do it," he said.

Eventually, he said, they will do it enough to learn. And then will come a better understanding of their kitchens.

"I could be cutting vegetables with the guys and all of a sudden hear something behind me, and I know it's not right. I mean, I like to say I can hear fire and I can hear anything," he said. "When you're in the kitchen the sound of cooking is like music. That sounds weird, but it really is true. That's how in-tune I am with cooking."

Even a renowned chef has a few marginal items in his cupboard. When asked about his favorite junk food, White named potato chips, because "it's the crunching sound, it's salt ... As a young person I didn't have a lot of junk food. I liked to go to my friends' house when I was little to go get junk food."

White moved on to cheeseburgers and then his 11 p.m. special -- high-quality Italian tuna with oil, celery and Hellman's mayonnaise on whole wheat toast.

"That's what Michael White eats late at night," he said.