“I chose to be a high-speed, but haute couture craftsman”: the secrets of Alain Ducasse, starred chef at the Louis XV in Monaco
Doing an interview with Ducasse, he’s the one who cooks! Starting from the outset on several themes requiring a review of the seasoning of the imagined menu of questions.
The three-starred chef of the Louis XV, at the head of an international gastronomy empire, is like the cuisine he defends: no frills, going straight to the heart of the flavors.
Arrived from Thailand on the night of Friday to Saturday where he went to celebrate the third anniversary of “Blue”, his restaurant in Bangkok, Alain Ducasse came to close the Monte-Carlo Star Festival, with his fellow chefs who bring the high gastronomy within the Société des Bains de Mer.
The opportunity to deliver his feelings on the Monegasque culinary scene and his vision of the profession today. Interview.
In 2022, a record number of new tables opened in the Principality…
It is very good ! This shows that we are not behind, we are even rather ahead. We follow the permanent evolution of the culinary thing, it is not new in the Principality. Today, everyone has pre-empted food as a tourist destination. It is one of the things to discover when visiting a city. We tell ourselves “Where are we going to eat?” to share, exchange, have a good time. It is a new social code. During meal time, everyone is always in agreement. It is a space that only the table allows. And in this evolution, it is important to continue in the Principality to welcome people from other backgrounds.
What do you do in the kitchens of “Louis XV” where generations of cooks from all over the world have cut their teeth?
Indeed, for example Massimo Bottura (3 stars in Modena) was there thirty years ago. He is a star today. Clare Smyth was a clerk in the restaurant fifteen years ago, she is now a three star in London. In Monaco, we have always opened doors. We must continue to do so, accepting young men and women who come from all over the world to learn the culinary thing here, to be in turn the spokespersons of a certain art of living, French, even Monegasque since we are on the shores of the Mediterranean. The cuisine here is not quite the same as that of Paris, but it remains haute cuisine.
“To enhance a vegetable menu, you have to work more than for the traditional hierarchy of a menu”
Has your approach to local products, this Naturalness movement that you embody, gained traction in this way?
It’s a movement that we started with my teams without thinking that it worked at school. In 2014, when we chose to make high gastronomy with vegetables, cereals and fish from sustainable fishing, it was not easy. Now it’s acquired, a generation is being built all over the world. I recently proposed a vegan dinner in Monaco with a level of palatability equivalent to a meal of very high traditional gastronomy. With the techniques we have to make a vegan menu of a level of excellence, unimaginable five or ten years ago. Because to enhance a vegetable menu, you have to work more than for the traditional hierarchy of a menu.
In gastronomy today, the concept more often defines a restaurant than its cuisine…
I hate the word concept! In a restaurant, everyone tells their story. I find the concept reductive. Haute gastronomy, like haute couture, is helping to lift the entire restaurant industry. Haute cuisine is the attention paid to every detail that helps make a lunch or dinner a delicious memory. It’s a story of harmony between container and content.
“Today’s cuisine is necessarily in harmony with the consumer”
Where the product that we eat must be the star?
I am very attached to what I have where I am. And not to import products that travel thousands of kilometers, whereas by looking a little, you can find products on the spot that will satisfy the palate of the consumer. In every property in the world, 85% of our customers are locals. If we want to better feed our consumers with perfectly sourced local products, we have done our job better with the idea of preserving the planet and the health of individuals. By using less fat, less salt, less sugar. Today’s cuisine is necessarily in harmony with today’s consumer and each cook must have a humanistic vision of his job.
Do you notice, like many after the pandemic, an erosion of the craze for the catering trades?
No more than in other professions. The plumber or the carpenter has as many difficulties as we do. There is an awareness of living differently, of finding meaning in one’s life. We are on three continents, in ten cities. We have no more worries in Monaco than in Japan or the United States. The work has to be attractive if we want to continue to see employees come into our industry.
“Career changes are easier today”
You have often forced fate in your career. What do you say to young people who come knocking at your door?
“Come show what you can do”. Every week we have new recruits. Career changes are easier today, people who have eyes that shine to join us, there are some. We have to make room for them. Half won’t stay there, but that’s okay. The future is to seek out people who do not come from our industry.
And the elders in your schools in Meudon or Yssingeaux?
We have nearly 600 students, more than 80 nationalities, around fifty conversions among them in these schools, which are the most beautiful in the world at the moment. The economic impact of what we do in terms of education is enormous. It will eventually bear fruit with future professionals who, throughout the world, will be inspired by the art of living that we convey.
Chocolate, coffee, ice cream, biscuits. Your handicraft factories are about to celebrate their first decade. This is an area that you like to exploit…
It’s exciting ! Since 2013, we have been roasting cocoa beans in Paris to make chocolate at the best level. Less than ten chocolatiers in France produce by hand. Chocolate is mainly industrial and we have this success because we are different.
“I don’t make ties!”
A way to also democratize your products, for those who cannot afford a starred meal?
For sure. Like everything I do. I cook, I teach, I make products that are consumed, I publish cookbooks. I don’t make ties!
Alain Ducasse products in supermarkets one day, do you think about it?
Never ! I chose to be a high-speed, high-fashion craftsman. Otherwise I would already be an industrialist.
Your name has become a luxury brand, do you like it?
It is important for my company to be sustainable for my employees, the brand must survive the individual.
“Prince Rainier has always supported me”
In our society in crisis, eating well is expensive…
It’s not true! If we eat vegetables and cereals, it is expensive in labor but not in product. You have to choose to eat less animal protein. I would say per meal 20% protein and 80% plants, vegetables and cereals, banishing sugar which is everywhere. We must change this way of thinking that we need animal protein in quantity. It’s not true. We must do less but better.
In 2023, the Principality will celebrate the centenary of the birth of Prince Rainier III. Was he the one who opened the doors of Monaco to you?
Completely ! I had written him a 17-page document to explain my project. He hired me, I was 30 years old. He took me around the SBM and told me to choose the place that I liked. I chose the “Louis XV”. We then see each other once or twice a year to take stock. When I lost the third star, he kept his trust in me. Some may have thought “finally we will be able to get rid of Ducasse”but Prince Rainier has always supported me.