Russell Crowe is getting cooking on a biographical film about infamous British celebrity chef Marco Pierre White.

Crowe will write, direct, and star in the biopic, which has been in development for several years – originally with Sir Ridley Scott as director. In the past, both Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy have been tipped to portray White, who became the first British chef to be awarded three Michelin stars.

"I have just signed the deal," the chef told the Daily Mail. "Russell has written the script, Russell’s company is producing it, Russell is directing it and Russell is playing the third or fourth Marco. When they do a movie on your life, you don’t just have one Marco — I am nearly 60 years old."

White is an enigmatic figure often called the "enfant terrible" of the British restaurant scene. In 1994, at the age of 32, he became the youngest chef ever to be awarded three Michelin stars. But just five years later, he retired from the kitchen, and later became a popular TV personality and successful restaurateur.

Gordon Ramsay trained under White before striking out on his own, and White has claimed that he once made Ramsay cry in the kitchen. "I don't recall what he'd done wrong but I yelled at him and he lost it," White wrote in his 2006 memoir. "Gordon crouched down in the corner of the kitchen, buried his head in his hands and started sobbing."

He's a tough cookie – pun intended – who clearly approves of Crowe's casting. "If there was anyone in Hollywood to play me," he told the Daily Mail, "it would have to be Russell."

Who do you think should play Gordon Ramsay in Russell Crowe's Marco Pierre White movie?