A now naturalised Monégasque citizen, the French-born chef is the most distinguished chef in the Principality, if not France. He is the first person to ever hold three Michelin stars in three different establishments. The three-star status of his Monaco restaurant in Monaco has now been held for 30 years.
He owns 30 restaurants worldwide. He is the Consulting Director of the Alain Ducasse Group, which runs more than 20 hotels and restaurants. As President of the chain Châteaux et Hôtels de France, he presides over 500 prestigious hotels. He has published several cookbooks as well as a line of culinary encyclopaedias.
Cooking is a love story, you have to fall in love with the products and the people who make them.
He began his apprenticeship at the age of 16 at the restaurant Le Pavillon Landais in Soustons, Landes. He joined the Lycée d’Hôtellerie et de Tourisme de Gascogne and left shortly before graduation. In 1980, he became head chef at the restaurant L’Amandier in Mougins, then at La Terrasse de l’Hôtel Juana in Juan-les-Pins. It was there that he obtained his first two stars in the Michelin guide in 1984.
Because competition is fierce and knowledge is within everyone’s reach, today, the important thing is to run faster than everyone else
In 1996, he took over Joël Robuchon’s former restaurant in Paris and renamed it Alain Ducasse. The President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac, made him a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 2004. The chef was naturalised as a Monégasque in 2008 by personal order of Prince Albert II.
Alain Ducasse opened a cooking school in 2009.
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