Alain Ducasse interview: I am not ahead of the competition at all

Mischievous: Alain Ducasse
Pierre Monetta
David Ellis @dvh_ellis20 March 2018

Be grateful Alain Ducasse didn’t listen to his parents.

The chef was raised on a farm, close by Castel-Sarrazin in south west France, in a town of 400 where children could do what they liked until it was time to take over from mum and dad.

“My parents were cool, very cool” he shrugs, “but at the beginning, when I said I wanted to cook, they were against the idea because they thought I’d take over the business.”

By 12, though, Ducasse was sold on the smells from grandma’s kitchen.

I wanted to cook before before I knew the difficulties of being a chef

“It was really distracting” he says, half laughing; “I wanted to cook before before I knew the difficulties of being a chef.”

The record does not show that Ducasse found much difficult. Today, he has 18 Michelin stars and 27 restaurants, though these figures rise and fall gently, like the price of gold. In 1998, he became the youngest chef to ever win six Michelin stars, and only the second since Eugenie Brazier. He was doubling his own record: in 1990, then 33, he was the youngest person to earn three Michelin stars.

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The circumstances made this especially impressive. On August 9, 1984, three months after recovering from a motorcycle accident, he and four colleagues took a Piper Aztec from Saint Tropez to open a new restaurant in Courchevel, the ski resort in the French Alps. Bad weather saw them fly under the clouds; a mountain appeared. The pilot pulled up and the altimeter span but the plane ploughed into the mountain side, killing everyone but Ducasse, who was was thrown into the trees where he would hang for six-and-a-half hours waiting for a rescue team. His leg was almost gone, and the months of recovery included 15 operations.

“It certainly changed the way I saw life” he says, “For me, the worst thing in the world is to be either physically incapacitated – or mentally – and when you live that, you are outside of society. It is difficult to experience. So now every morning when I wake up, I say the only problem I face is to again by physically incapacitated, or mentally, and I am not now. It is a morning decision, every morning, to be the positive way. One of my values is not to fear to try.”

It’s a value that’s marked his empire. Though tomorrow, March 21, his eponymous three starred restaurant at the Dorchester will be celebrating the fourth year of Goût de France/Good France – an initiative Ducasse set up with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to celebrate French cooking – the aim remains to conquer new places, to taste new things and meet new people. There seem few places left for him to make his mark, given he rocketed food to feed the International Space Station 14 years back, but he is not convinced.

“No matter where I go, there is something interesting to be found. I loved Laos, meeting people for a coffee. It’s very remote, they make their coffee in a particular way, following a particular regime. I wanted to find out how and why they do. It’s the same for cocoa, in Brazil. When people harvest wild cocoa, I’ll always find that interesting.

“It’s the people, the way they tell their stories. Diversity is what makes the world amazing.”

He makes his travels sound strangely casual, in much the same way he smiles away the stars and refuses any accolades (“the Godfather of modern French food? Ha!”). His name is hardly ever on his restaurants and calls his head chefs players. He is the coach “and the player is likely to be better than the coach”.

It’s like fashion - you don’t want your name everywhere, all the time. It’s not the right look.

“Besides,” he reasons, “It’s like fashion - you don’t want your name everywhere, all the time. It’s not the right look.”

This modesty is partly what makes him intriguing to interview. Later, I realise that running questions and answers through a translator is perhaps strictly necessary. Querying one point in French, an answer comes back in English but somehow elucidates. Other times, he interrupts his translated answer to clarify it and, once, to change the phrasing. Later, explaining that a colourful cotton band hanging from his wrist is from his daughter, he jokes: “I can’t remove it – she checks!”

Perhaps he is having fun; there is a mischievous bent to Ducasse, who uses knowing looks as light hearted punctuation.

We are back to French now: would he want his family to take on the business?

“I don’t want to impose it on my family,” he says, “If they want to do it, they will, but in some ways I wish that they won’t take it over. I don’t want them to carry the weight of it, the weight of the idea, or to have those comments of, ‘It isn’t as good as when Mr Ducasse did it.’”

First-hand experience: Ducasse is passionate about his new projects, including his chocolate

It must be a lot of pressure for you too, to be arguably the most successful chef in the world?

“I am not ahead of the competition at all. There are 30, 40, maybe 50 chefs who are just as influential” he insists.

How about in Britain? “Well, Ramsay is much more influential than I am. And I really like Jason Atherton; he’s an interesting young chef, interesting developments. He’s doing things very efficiently. It’s like a young version of my business, and it has a lot of potential.”

I really like Jason Atherton; he’s an interesting young chef with interesting developments. He’s doing things very efficiently. It’s like a young version of my business

There is a stock answer Ducasse uses so often it is like a reflex and, like a reflex, seems entirely natural. Where’s his favourite country? His favourite restaurant? What dishes excite him? Which project is he most excited about?

“Whatever’s next”, he says, over and over. He talks of work in Japan, Dubai, Beijing, Macau. It doesn’t sound like he has any plans to retire?

“I could if I wanted to but, at the moment, I’m just thinking about re-organising, shifting some of the weight, the responsibilities. I’m thinking about what happens afterwards. But there are over 1000 people working for the company, so it’s a social responsibility too.

“I’m still passionate about what I don’t know, about what’s coming up, about what is not expected. The proposition is different everywhere. Then there are the challenges: as chefs, we have to preserve the resources of the planet, we have to make sure everyone has access to food. And then I’m always looking at the diversity of the company, we have a lot of different backgrounds, beliefs, religions. This diversity is a gift, a wealth of culture. And I want to share my knowledge around the world, that’s my obsession.”

How does he find the time? “I have a few watches,” he says, “and collection of trunks”. For travelling? Yes. Of course he does: Mr Ducasse is always exploring.

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester celebrates Goût de France/Good France on March 21, alainducasse-dorchester.com.

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