Back to nature with Alain Ducasse

When you’re the only nine-Michelin-star chef in the world, people expect you to be god in the kitchen, but Alain Ducasse balances all the adulation with a generous helping of reality.

“Haute cuisine should be approachable and understood by everyone,” Ducasse says. “Because a restaurant is first and foremost a place to eat.”

This chef from Monaco personifies the trinity of culinary holy trinities: he is the first chef to own three restaurants in three cities — Louis XV-Alain Ducasse in Monte Carlo, the Plaza Athenée in Paris, and Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester in London — each of which boast three Michelin stars, the highest rating awarded by the universally revered Red Guide.

Ducasse was recently in the Philippines for two days to solidify his partnership with Enderun Colleges, a state-of-the-art hotel and restaurant school in McKinley Hills with four-year undergrad courses in the culinary and hospitality industries. His group, Alain Ducasse Formation (ADF), focuses on educational projects and partnerships (like that with Enderun) to bring the techniques of global gastronomy to classrooms and kitchens around the world. ADF even determines the curriculum, which means that being an Enderun student is much like studying with Alain Ducasse himself. Two Enderun students, in fact, are now working as interns in Ducasse’s restaurant Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower.

“What better place than Manila, a city at the crossroads of various influences, to dialog with Southeast Asian cultures that are so rich and so diverse?” Ducasse said about choosing to partner with Enderun, at present his first and only school in Asia.

In Manila, Ducasse also hosted a wine dinner for the public, bringing with him three chefs from three of his restaurants to prepare his menu, and giving Manila diners a taste of Ducasse’s famous Provençal-cum-international flavors.

At the hands of his mentor and “spiritual master” Alain Chapel, Ducasse developed his philosophy of “60 percent ingredients and 40 percent technique,” a belief that demands the freshest produce sourced locally and menus that change with the season.

“People should not be eating the same thing in Manila, Paris and New York,” he declares.

Showing that he practices what he preaches, on Day Two of his Manila visit Ducasse shopped at Farmer’s Market in Cubao, before holding a forum for industry people on “Before Cuisine There Was Nature.”

Growing up on a farm in southwest France surrounded by ducks, geese, boletus mushrooms and foie gras sparked Ducasse’s lifelong passion for preserving and cooking fresh ingredients.

At 16 he began his culinary career by apprenticing at a restaurant and hotel school, soon working with luminaries like Michel Guérard, Gaston Lenotre, and Roger Vergé at Moulin de Mougins, with Vergé introducing him to the concept of Cuisine du Soleil.

“Forget the old stereotypes,” Ducasse says. “Real French cuisine is open to the world.”

At the tender age of 25 he earned his first two Michelin stars, as head chef of La Terrasse in Juan-les-Pins, France. At 33 he became chef of the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, tasked with overseeing the dining outlets in the hotel. Once he got them all up and running, however, he chose to focus on the crown jewel, the fine-dining outlet Louis XV.

His restaurant Alain Ducasse in Paris was awarded three Michelin stars a mere eight months after opening. His first American foray, the New York outpost Alain Ducasse at Essex House, also earned three stars in 2001, but closed in 2007.

Today the Alain Ducasse Group has opened 25 concept restaurants in 10 countries all over the world, including the United States, Japan and Hong Kong. Setting his sights beyond the kitchen, Ducasse also runs country inns, has interests in hotels, runs three cooking schools in France, develops meals for astronauts, and writes books, including a culinary encyclopedia. You can’t say the man ever rests on his laurels — or in this case, his Michelin stars.

Now that he’s in the exalted position of executive chef, Ducasse deploys talent among his various properties and finds pleasure in managing them. Ever the maestro with his fingers in all the pies, he also directs the design and atmosphere of his restaurants, organizes the kitchen, and even decides on tableware.

“It is the executive chef who is responsible for making it perfect every day,” Ducasse has said.

And who are we to argue with god?

Here, choice excerpts from the press conference:

THE PHILIPPINE STAR: I heard that this is your first time in Philippines. What Filipino dishes have you tried, what did you think of them?

ALAIN DUCASSE: Nothing for the moment, because I just arrived this morning. Tomorrow we can try.

What would your advice be to make Filipino food more global, and put it on the world map?

First of all, we have to use products of excellent quality and techniques that are perfectly mastered. And we should not try to copy cuisines that we find in our neighboring countries, but prioritize what we have and preserve the personal culinary identity of each country.

I am against globalization in general, including globalization in the world of cuisine. We have other cuisines, but we should not let ourselves be influenced by other cuisines.

In the last 30 years, cuisines have come and gone: nouvelle cuisine, molecular cuisine, etc. What will be the future trends for the craft?

Regarding molecular cuisine, in Europe it’s very much finished. We can say that before, we’ve talked a lot about it, but for us, it’s already in the past. As I said a while ago, I’m all for the preservation of local cuisine. Each cuisine should be able to present its influences in a contemporary manner, but at the same time, be able to keep its own personal identity.

What do you mean when you say, “Before cuisine there was nature”?

For me, nature is everything that the earth gives, everything that the sea gives, and for me cuisine does not exist without nature. Before cuisine, there was nature and its products; and then afterward, cuisine. Without products and without nature, the culinary chef would not be able to express his talents.

What is your favorite dish?

Vegetables that I pick from my own garden and cook.

How do you adapt regional tastes into classical cuisine?

First of all, French cuisine is a skill and a professional technique. For example, when I’m in Osaka, I see first what the region is able to offer me in terms of products — what kind of fish, beef, vegetables I can find. Then I try to apply French technique on the best products I can find in this region. It’s more about translating the skills of French cuisine than the actual taste of French cuisine. Like for the Japanese, we have to present a cuisine that is more modern than what we would normally present in France, with particular attention on presentation. And in New York, same thing: I look at the products that I can find in the States near New York or in New York itself, and we integrate a bit of American taste. But the DNA is essentially French. So the cuisine becomes 80 percent French and 20 percent American. These are the necessary adaptations that we make, without ever forgetting that we are French cooks.

My friend ate in your Las Vegas restaurant, Mix, and he was not happy with the food. With 25 restaurants in 10 countries, do you think you’re spreading yourself too thin?

First of all, it’s possible that he would not be happy. It was probably overcooked, too seasoned, took too long, and it was probably everything served at the same time. But I believe the majority of my clients are happy. My chef in Las Vegas is a young American who worked eight years in Paris and worked a long time with me. He has great passion and I have the utmost confidence in him. I develop restaurants. The motivation for creating all these restaurants is to give a chance for all these young chefs under me to be able to manage their own restaurants. So this is what influences the creation of all these restaurants. I would truly prefer that these people work for me rather than my competitors!

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For inquiries, visit Enderun’s Fort Bonifacio campus at 1100 Campus Avenue, McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, call 856-5000 or visit www.enderuncolleges.com.