An afternoon in Monaco. Alain Ducasse (62) sits in the empty dining room of his restaurant Louis XV., He is the chef with the twenty stars – no other chef is rated in the famous “Michelin”restaurant guide, higher. From New York to Macao gastro-entrepreneur Alain Ducasse operates more than 30 Local, employs 2000 employees. To the stove, he stands for a long time.
Mr Ducasse, we are talking about money. Important for you?
I want to have enough of it, so I don’t fear for my Living in my youth. Otherwise, I invest almost everything I make in my company. I recently got into the coffee industry. Since I’ve put just two million euros in.
Just like that?
I could of course buy seven Bentleys in seven different colors, a the would for every day of the week – cheaper, than to expand into the coffee business. But I need anyway a car.
you come from a humble background, her parents were farmers. Their customers, but 500 Euro for a meal, per Person. Isn’t that kind of decadent?
500 Euro are a fair price. Here, in the Louis XV, I employ 55 people, each meal is an artistic creation, each supplier is hand-picked. No fish comes from the great fishing, each mushroom is picked by Hand. Each crystal glass is carefully selected, each tablecloth is made according to my ideas. All this contributes to define the State of the Art in the gastronomy as a whole. I am the Antipode to McDonald’s.
this old song from the bad McDonald’s food really?
of Course. The food there is soft, greasy, addictive. There is everything in it, what is bad for the health.
you Have at least respect for the entrepreneurial success of McDonald’s?
But, the Marketing is strong. McDonald’s managed to miss a better Image. The other day I’m at a conference immediately after a Quality Manager of McDonald’s occurred. “Excellence” was her favorite word. It listened to when they speak of how I feel about Haute Cuisine! I wonder If McDonald’s is excellence, then what are we?
you have collected already for the brand, operate cooking schools and advise Restaurants.
I’m not precious-catering only. This is just the tip of the iceberg. 90 percent of my business are not the star of the kitchen. Bistros are including and brasseries. I do it like Daimler. I offer everything, and the good quality of the noble saloon, to the Smart.
As a 31-Year-old they signed a Treaty wherein was written, you may need to achieve with the Restaurant Louis XV. within four years of the three stars in the “Michelin”guide.
The former Prince said to me, he would love to have three stars. I answered him: “Write that in my contract!” The created trust. After 33 months I am to him and announced: “Mission accomplished my Lord,.”
And you can gold plating?
Clearly I am the Prince, and said that the premium was due.
the Royal family Get a peak force such as you, paid well.
Yes, that’s it! But that’s not the main thing. More important for me to have every day of Fun in my profession.
If money is not important, why do you have to give up the French citizenship, to be sovereign of Monaco – what your tax burden is very reduces?
Monaco has given me a stage, which has helped me to world fame. And one day, Prince Rainier has to take me to the citizenship. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I did not, for tax reasons, but because I owed it to the Prince family.
“500 euros is a fair price. Every meal is an artistic creation.”
no more Have you to thank France and its cuisine?
Everything that my company can earn in France, where it is taxed. Monaco makes up 2 percent of my sales. The tax savings is so modest. And I claim for me, to be representative of the French cuisine.
Some say they are the godfather of French gastronomy. And others claim that it was stopped.
Our kitchen has never been so varied and modern as it is today. In my restaurants, the default is: 80 percent of a meal to be covered with vegetable proteins, only 20 percent of the animal and because, preferably, with season fish. If this is not a further development of the French cuisine, which used to be so meat-heavy!
you Develop recipes?
I have my staff. My chef here in Monaco has just built a new restaurant with Oriental cuisine for me. I served only as a taster. Three months before the opening of what he served me was mediocre. Then, we have worked together – and the dishes are really good.
What then justifies your own creative act, 20 star?
I decide on all the ingredients, the style of the Restaurant decoration, the Font on the menus and so on. I’ll bring it to paper. That’s why I can claim that a Ducasse Restaurant is 85 percent my creation.
the cook them at all?
Only for myself, when I’m home. What is rarely.
What to recycle because so?
I have a garden, I’ll see what he has to offer now. Now in the spring, perhaps, peas and early potatoes. I go to the market and see what it has to offer, the fish dealer. I’m becoming more and more the idea, of course, and to cook radically simple as possible.
you Give us an example.
the other day hard, I have prepared me a king sea bream, 1.4 Kilo. Velvet is shed in very high heat to 280 degrees to be cooked. Without something, without salt. Twelve minutes in the oven, then five minutes, let it rest. There is the pure, unadulterated taste of the fish is revealed.
Haute Cuisine is not necessarily for high margins. You need to build a world, similar cuisine to have in this industry and also the financial success?
star kitchen is not a business. It is necessary to create products and a brand. My 3-star-Restaurants to create 20 million euros in sales in the year. The 15 percent of my revenue. The yield is always below 10 percent. My bistro to come on 15 to 20 percent. This is tempting!
There were also defeats. Finally, you have lost the the concession of the Eiffel tower Local. Does it hurt?
I also have the survival will. In the fight for the Eiffel tower-Restaurants I have not lost actually, because I don’t stop. I have now opened in the immediate vicinity of a Restaurant on a His-ship – with spectacular views from the water to the tower. to lose
A “Michelin”-star is worse?
Nothing is really bad. I’ve already lost five stars. That’s what motivates me.
There are chefs who renounce because of the pressure on star.
You can live without a star, but I live better. I never have enough of it.
you are 62 years old – in France the pension age. When do you stop?
Stop? I run me, but only just warm!
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 17.05.2019, 22:33 PM
