MARCO Pierre White he is not, but actor Mark White, pictured, has been a restaurant chef in his time, however briefly.

Those days provide fond memories and good research for the Londoner's latest stage role, as a short-order cook in Frankie And Johnny At The Clair de Lune, in the Studio at York Theatre Royal.

"Funnily enough, in the early Seventies I was doing this waiter's job where, bit by bit, you got to learn it all, so one night I was both waiter and chef," says the fast-talking Mark.

"It was this place called Bunjee's Folk Cellar, which I think is still there, on the Charing Cross Road, and anyway I remember bringing out this spaghetti dish to this guy who always sat there with his paper.

"I was holding the plate the way waiters do, when all the spaghetti slipped off the plate on to his table. He just looked at me and put the paper back up to his face!

"Didn't matter. I got fired in the end anyway, and I've never done any chef work since then though I do all the cooking at home."

Does that help with his role? "Well, John Benson-Smith (from Hazlewood Castle) thought it did when we had a cookery session with him. He said 'I'm not being patronising, but I can tell you know your way around a kitchen'."

Mark is playing Johnny in his first excursion to York let alone the Theatre Royal, and his co-star in Terrence McNally's two-hander about a rollercoaster quest for true love is Paris Jefferson, the Zena - Warrior Princess star here cast as cynical New York waitress Frankie.

By chance they had auditioned opposite each other, but their food requirements were not so instantly compatible. Mark is a vegetarian, Paris has a gluten allergy; a problem when the show demands they share meat loaf.

The solution? "We've come up with a vegetarian haggis, which you can cook in the microwave, compress in the fridge, and then it will cut like meat loaf!" says Mark.

Ready, steady, he cooks in York until October 26. For tickets, ring 01904 623568.

Updated: 08:51 Friday, October 04, 2002