Alain Ducasse has restaurants all over the globe but quality will always trump quantity in this French superchef’s philosophy. The culinary icon meets Crave in London.
Text by Clare Murray
It all started on a farm in southwest France, in his grandmother Jeanne’s kitchen. Every day, to satisfy the young Alain’s insatiable curiosity for food, she would send him into the garden to pick vegetables for lunch. Forty years and an incredible 19 Michelin stars later, Alain Ducasse’s passion and affinity for fresh, simple ingredients has never waned. The 53-year-old’s reputation has spread across the globe with 27 restaurants worldwide, including, of course, SPOON at the InterContinental in Hong Kong.
At the age of 33, at Louis XV in Monte Carlo, he became the youngest chef in France to be awarded three Michelin stars. He received his 19th for his eponymous restaurant at the Dorchester Hotel in London – where we meet for this interview. Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester is the third restaurant of his to have earned three stars after Plaza Athenee in Paris and the Louis XV in Monaco. But Ducasse’s talents do not stop there – he is also a renowned tutor in culinary matters, running an academy for chefs, and last year he opened a cookery school in Paris for gastronomic novices. He has also written 17 cookery books, including his encyclopaedic three-volume Grand Livre de Cuisine. His latest publication, Nature: Simple, Sain et Bon (Nature: Simple, Healthy and Good), was published late last year. So, all in all, a very busy man, and oh yes, I forgot to mention he is also a hotelier and an adviser to the European Space Agency, to create menus for the International Space Station.
But anyone thinking Ducasse will now rest on his laurels should think again. While he has no plans to open another establishment in Hong Kong – “one is perfect” – he will open a restaurant in St Petersburg in the autumn, and yet another, which he seems particularly excited about, in Doha, Qatar, in the Museum of Islamic Art, which he describes as “one of the most beautiful museums in the world”.
So how does he find the head space to expand on such a scale? Surely not from a kitchen. “I have teams that have been working with me for a long time and have a huge knowledge,” he says, sitting opposite me in an immaculately cut suit peering through neat tortoiseshell spectacles.
“They have trained in my restaurants. They sometimes leave to work elsewhere, but they come back.
“I also have corporate executives who travel a lot to help run the restaurants while I mostly take care of the big restaurants – Monaco, Paris…”
He chooses his staff with care and, one imagines, has unshakeable judgment. “If they have the envie to work, I see it in their eyes. If they want to work for me, that’s even better.”
Ducasse travels to Hong Kong about three times a year, and, like most people who are passionate about food, acknowledges that the city is a gourmand’s paradise.
“The Chinese are like the French regarding food, they have numerous regions and cuisines, and they love to eat,” he says.
“The variety of restaurants and cuisines in Hong Kong is huge,” he says. “I have eaten at a lot of places. I can’t remember all the names, but they were mostly local, very genuine places – not the big international establishments, because I’m not very interested in that.”
One he does remember visiting – perhaps with more professional curiosity than others – is Tim Ho Wan, a dim sum restaurant in Mong Kok, which is the world’s cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant (the most expensive dim sum there costs about $30). Does it merit its star? “It’s not me who gives out the stars, it’s the Michelin Guide. It’s me who cooks,” he replies diplomatically. “You need to ask the people who write the guide.” He does stress, however, that it was very good – before adding “there are plenty of good restaurants that don’t have a star”.
“One of the great meals I remember,” he continues, “was a Szechuan meal from the guy who opened the Chinese restaurant in the Shangri-La in Paris. It was subtle and varied – something that the French appreciate.”
Dim sum is another favourite of his. “When it’s well done, it’s remarkable,” Ducasse exclaims. “Chinese cuisine is a never-ending inspiration.”
But he isn’t tempted to emulate Chinese cooking at SPOON. “The culture and culinary expertise are too vast and sophisticated to try to borrow from,” he says. Instead, he sticks to contemporary French, an evolution of Gallic cuisine that, he says, “goes down very well with his Chinese clients. They are among the few people who pay attention to the beverages that they will pair with the food. You can find real wine experts in Hong Kong. They are very interested in French wines, but not so much New World wines. They are very curious about the way the French pair wine with food, and they do the same.”
There is one dish that unites all Ducasse’s grand restaurants and brings us back to that farmhouse kitchen in southwest France – his signature Cookpot. The plain ceramic pot of simply (but no less exquisitely) cooked local vegetables probably sums up Ducasse’s whole philosophy. “It’s not about cooking with expensive products – they don’t necessarily mean you’ll have a great dish,” he tells me persuasively. “Inspiration and the motivation to do what I do come from the richness of the daily markets,
and the products I can find there.”
And with that, as this great chef spots a friend across the Dorchester’s lobby and quickly moves on to his next idea, he is gone.
My Favourite Things with Alain Ducasse
1. Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party and what would you cook?
It would have to be Barack Obama. He was supposed to come to Le Jules Verne (Ducasse’s restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower), but there was a security issue, so he couldn’t come. I’d find out what he likes, and the challenge would be to cook it differently.
2. When you are at home, who does the cooking?
My wife. I don’t have a commis chef in my house to peel the vegetables.
3. If you weren’t a chef, what would you like to have been?
A traveller or an architect. But actually I seem to be doing all three jobs now.
4. Is there a food you don’t like?
I’m not a big fan of cinnamon. Often when it’s used in cooking, it’s too much. It must be very subtle to be enjoyable.
5. What is the secret to the perfect souffle?
Everything has to be perfect – the ingredients, the eggs, the oven, the temperature, the knowledge. Making a souffle is very precise. Our pastry chefs in the Dorchester, Le Jules Vernes and at our restaurant in New York are souffle masters.
6. Where do you go to relax?
The countryside in the Pays Basque, between Bordeaux and San Sebastian.
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