With 66 years and five decades of experience, the French chef has built a gastronomic empire of restaurants and businesses around the world
There are chefs with Michelin stars and, on another level, there is Alain Ducasse .
In addition to being the first chef to have three restaurants with three Michelin stars each (the institution’s highest rating), Ducasse is one of only two chefs in the world to accumulate a total of more than 20 of them. Basically, he is a gastronomic icon – and his growing empire is proof of that.
“It’s not an empire,” he corrects me, “and I don’t see it as a business. I think of it as a succession of small ateliers. Of crafts. Each restaurant, or store, tells its own story.”
In the 50 years since his first internship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in the French commune of Soustons, Ducasse has opened more fine restaurants than most people have seen in their entire lives
Today, his company has a total of 34 “ateliers”, each one launched by Ducasse himself and then left in the hands of the chef (or chefs) he appoints to run it.
“Currently, my focus is on passing on my knowledge to chefs in their 30s ,” he says. “I pay a lot of attention to their evolution, training them and helping them to develop.”
On this subject, Clare Smyth’s name quickly comes up in conversation. After training with Ducasse early in her career, she not only opened her own restaurant – London’s Core by Clare Smyth – but was also awarded three Michelin stars. With this, she became the first British chef to win (and keep) the top honor.
“Clare was really willing to learn,” he recalls. “In 2005, she already had a strong personality and this showed in her cooking. That’s what I like: identifying talents and giving them all the opportunities and knowledge to grow and find their own gastronomic identity.”
His support for each of his chefs is also ongoing. Over the years, Ducasse has done everything he can to turn the spotlight away from himself and onto them.
The recent ‘Four Hands’ dinner at Alain Ducasse At The Dorchester in London is a good example. Although Ducasse hosted the evening alongside two of his three-star disciples – resident executive chef Jean-Philippe Blondet and Emmanuel Pilon of Le Louis XV Alain Ducasse – the £580 meal cost 3,600) with wine pairing was not a celebration of his work, but of theirs.
Each stage of the dinner highlighted one of the two chefs’ signature dishes, including Emmanuel’s venison loin with Kampot pepper, smoked beetroot and limequat (a type of citrus hybrid between quincã lemon and lime), and Jean’s turbot fish. -Philippe, with Jerusalem artichoke, watercress, black truffle and hazelnut.
But does not stop there. When we met in London, Ducasse said he was excited to dine at Alex Dilling at the Hotel Café Royal that night, specifically to “check in” with another former apprentice – chef Dilling began his career at Ducasse’s Adour in New York.
“They are all restaurants with very original stories. So, if everyone is an extension of you, what is your story?” I ask. He answers without even thinking: “Freedom. I didn’t stop myself from trying. I allowed myself to try new things, even when there were failures. Now we have good restaurants, bistros, brasseries, cooking schools, a publishing house, a vegan restaurant…”. Ducasse smiles. In fact, freedom worked extraordinarily well for him.
Still, things didn’t happen as easily as one might expect for someone of his caliber.
“Funding has always been difficult to find, and it still is. It’s one battle after another, one a day,” she admits. “Nothing is given for free, and the market today is more competitive than when I started.”
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That’s why, when the chef thought about producing his own chocolate for his restaurants ten years ago, he decided to open a separate company, Le Chocolat Alain Ducasse .
Manufacturing each item, from the cocoa bean to the final product, the business built at a slow but steady pace. Since then, it has opened three stores in London and 26 stores across France – including La Glace and Le Biscuit, for luxury ice cream and biscuits, respectively.
Unusually, all the stores were inspired by the skin care brand Aesop. “I’m obsessed with design and, for me, Aesop has a model to look up to,” says Ducasse. “Each store is different and unique around the world. It’s the same products, but in a different environment. I love».
Working on each of these ventures as a Michelin-starred chef would, he is obsessed with flavor, technique and innovation in each product. Even when it comes to creating a cigar-flavored ice cream, inspired by a tobacco-flavored tea he tried in Japan. “You have to ask yourself: How many customers would buy this? Not many. Maybe 5%. But that 5% will come back, because they will only find it here.”
And yet, even with 21 stars and three thriving businesses , Ducasse feels there are still many things to be accomplished.
Behind the scenes, the 66-year-old chef is even running an ideas lab where he explores new ways to develop cured fish and sea vegetables.
“Every day we try to be better than we were yesterday,” he says. “That is the spirit of each of our ateliers, and my spirit: a life and legacy of good taste and pleasure.”
