RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has great food. Who says so? None other than Marco Pierre White, the legendary “enfant terrible” of global gastronomy.

And he should know. In 1995, when he was 33, White became the youngest chef whose restaurant held three Michelin stars, and the first British chef to do so. He also trained culinary legends including Mario Batali, Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay.

White is in Riyadh to take part in InFlavour, the Saudi government’s trade event for the global food and beverage industry, where he cooked a risotto with saffron for an audience at the Chef Arena platform.

“The food in Saudi Arabia is deliciously simple. I always think that simple is intelligent. I don’t like overworked food,” he said.

“What I like about the food in Saudi Arabia is they feed you and make you taste everything. Therefore, you indulge and enjoy the taste and you don’t leave the table hungry … I can’t say that about a lot of restaurants in Europe.”

Sometimes the story behind a dish was the key ingredient, and Arab dishes told many stories, he said. “I think the story is more important than the recipe. Why? Because the recipe can confuse you but a story can inspire you.

“Saudi Arabia has great food, it’s a fact. We live in a world of refinement, not invention.

“When you can respect traditional methods or traditional dishes and take them somewhere they’ve never been before … that’s called genius.”