Volume 47, Number 9
[dropcap size=big]W[/dropcap]hen you’re the chef/owner of 22 restaurants around the world that have garnered a total of 21 Michelin stars, it would be easy to believe the press and focus on the accolades. But talk to Alain Ducasse, and he’ll tell you chefs should not open restaurants to achieve Michelin stars, they should open them to please their customers. “When a restaurant is full, you know you have a successful restaurant. If Michelin gives your restaurants stars, that’s wonderful, and if the media likes your restaurant, that’s great, but the initial goal of any restaurant is to please your customers.”
The highly acclaimed chef, reputed to be one of the world’s best toques, with his stable of restaurants, as well as inns and a collection of cookbooks, was in Toronto this fall to announce the launch of a new pastry exchange initiative with George Brown College (see story on p. 10).
For Ducasse, achieving the pinnacle of success has been a journey in balancing creativity with technical kitchen skills. Having worked under culinary greats such as Roger Vergé and Alain Chapel has given him more than encyclopedic knowledge, it’s taught him life skills. “I learned professionalism and leadership from Roger Vergé; with Alain Chapel (French master chef), I learned about precision and discipline as well as modern cuisine,” says the toque. These days, he’s transferring that knowledge to his global brigade of chefs. He travels to oversee his restaurants but is quick to admit the empire runs successfully because he has a good team.
But, at the root of his prosperity is a food philosophy, which focuses on “great ingredients, locally sourced and prepared based on the seasonality — products prepared with perfection,” he states emphatically, explaining “they need to work harmoniously, and [you need] to know which wines go with which dishes. At the end of the day,” he says, “there has to be a great deal of discipline, and [you have to be] demanding of yourself through the repetition of skills until you arrive at perfection. That’s my objective; that’s my vision. That’s what’s needed to access gastronomy. That’s what rules my philosophy.”
Ducasse believes focus is necessary for success at any level, whether it’s a bistro, a takeout eatery or a haute-cuisine restaurant — “the same preparation is necessary even if you’re serving a sandwich — what bread are you going to use, what are you going to put in the sandwich, which butter, which seasoning? It requires great attention,” he says.
Interestingly, as the world becomes smaller, the trends impacting North American cuisine aren’t vastly different from those of France. “We’re interested in consuming less meat protein and using more products from the sea,” says Ducasse, with “less fat, less salt and less sugar as well as more local products.” He’s even coined the word, “glocal” to describe his philosophy of having a global vision with a local focus.
Still, though trends aren’t that vastly different across the pond, Ducasse believes there are differences in how Europeans and North Americans approach food. “In Europe, we pay more attention to gastronomy. It’s part of our history. In Paris, for example, we have a number of fine-dining restaurants. That’s our specialty. When Americans come to Paris, they accept paying $300 to $400 per person for food and wines.”
Ducasse recently made global headlines by eliminating meat from the menu at his newest restaurant, La Plaza Athénée in Paris. “I’m a socially conscious chef, but I also wanted to demonstrate that haute cuisine can still be accomplished without meat. It’s a lot more work to create haute cuisine with limited products, but it can be done, and I dared to do it.”
Of course, these days North Americans don’t have to travel that far to delight in Ducasse’s cuisine. In addition to restaurants in France, Italy, the U.K., Japan, China, Russia and the Middle East, there are also outposts closer to home, in New York and Las Vegas. “It’s important to have a global vision,” says Ducasse, explaining that’s what fuelled his North American expansion. And, though some might question why a Parisian chef would venture to open a restaurant in Vegas, Ducasse is quick to answer. “I was the first European chef to open in Las Vegas.”
As for Canada, for the moment, Ducasse has no plans to open a location in Toronto, where he dined at some of the city’s best restaurants during his recent trip. “There’s too much competition here,” he quips. Plus, he says, he still has other locations to open first, including Beijing and Macau, China as well as another location in Paris.
In terms of what makes a Michelin-star chef, it’s simple, says Ducasse: “You have to work more, you have to work faster, and you have to work better. It’s about being determined and having a strong will and a strong vision with regard to your goals and the necessary values.”
