Multi-starred chef Alain Ducasse in his restaurant Louis XV at the Hôtel de Paris, in Monaco, on March 23, 2023 (AFP/Valery HACHE)
“You have to dare to displease”: from the top of his 20 Michelin stars, the world record for a cook today, Alain Ducasse assumes risk-taking and transmits this state of mind to his students, several of whom have become stars at their round.
For the 35th anniversary of the Louis XV restaurant at the Hôtel de Paris, which “allowed him to conquer the world”, the 66-year-old chef was celebrated Thursday in Monaco, during a gala dinner prepared by his disciples stars, in the presence of Prince Albert II and the cream of world gastronomy.
When he arrived in the principality in May 1987, Alain Ducasse decided to make “vegetables in a cast iron casserole with a large piece of bacon”, says the man who became a Monegasque citizen in 2008, in an interview with AFP.
“Prince Rainier says to me: + Are people going to eat this? + I say: + yes, they will get used to it +. + Have they already eaten this? + I say: + no +. And the customers got used to it.”
First revolution: peasant and vegetable dishes enter a palace and Mediterranean cuisine becomes gourmet and fashionable. The whole world wants to do like Ducasse.
– “Asperities” and “frustrations” –
This week in Monaco, the gastronomic selection La Liste (which draws up its ranking from guides and reviews) paid tribute to Mediterranean cuisine.
At the Louis XV, that of Ducasse, who no longer cooks himself and presents himself as the “artistic director” of his restaurants, is now infused with his latest concept of “naturalness”: without meat, without butter and very little sugar .
Chef Emmanuel Pilon in the kitchens of the Louis XV restaurant in Monaco, March 23, 2023 (AFP / Valery HACHE)
This cuisine had been served since 2014 at the Plaza Athénée, in Paris, which separated from Ducasse in 2021. One of the Plaza’s exes, Emmanuel Pilon, recently took the reins of the Louis XV.
Gamberoni from San Remo with raw and fermented asparagus for “a hint of acidity and harshness” and almond buds for bitterness: this dish by Emmanuel Pilon sums up the aspiration to bring “an evolution in Mediterranean cuisine “, explains the chief to AFP.
“At the Plaza, you had to be radical to impose naturalness. Now, we have fun sprinkling it all over the movement I carry”, from the Esterre restaurant in Tokyo to the Sapid refectory or the vegetable burger Burgal in Paris where the you can eat “from 10 euros”, underlines Alain Ducasse.
Pastry chef Jessica Préalpato in Monaco, March 23, 2023 (AFP / Valery HACHE)
Candied grapefruit with the skin, burnt hemp, glasswort: the dessert of Jessica Préalpato, ex-chef of the Plaza, voted best pastry chef in the world by 50 Best in 2019, divided in Monaco. “No big deal”, she is used to it.
She is preparing for the opening of a boutique in Paris by bringing “a little more delicacy” to it compared to the “very raw” creations of the Plaza, without renouncing the Ducasse precepts.
“It marked my life, now I find it difficult to do things differently,” she told AFP.
Alain Ducasse, on the other hand, is looking for new avenues to disturb the client and provide him with unforgettable experiences.
Italian chef Massimo Bottura in Monaco, March 23, 2023 (AFP/Valery HACHE)
He recommends eating live grilled ayu fish in Kyoto. “His liver develops an immeasurable bitterness. It’s not attractive but you’ve never tasted it. It gives me the idea of what to do next,” he says.
He is also studying a Japanese book on astringency, a taste that we “do not know” well enough.
“You have to create frustrations and not just pleasure. That means: daring to displease”.
– “She’s crazy” –
British chef Clare Smyth in Monaco, March 23, 2023 (AFP/Valery HACHE)
Ducasse “is not afraid of anything and he is always the first to get things done, that has always fascinated me”, declared to AFP the Briton Clare Smyth, trained at Louis XV, chef of her three-starred restaurant in London and best chef in the world of the World 50 Best in 2018.
At Core, she puts vegetables at the center of the plate and makes potatoes the key ingredient.
“People thought + she’s crazy + to serve potatoes. But after a while they started to understand”.
“I have a duty to protect tradition, to break with tradition in order to rebuild it by taking a critical and non-nostalgic look at the past”, maintains for his part the Italian Massimo Bottura, 3 Michelin stars, trained by Ducasse he 30 years ago.
© 2023 AFP
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