Alain Ducasse Quotes & Sayings

When I'm in Paris, my favorite market is the Marche Raspail on the Left Bank. — Alain Ducasse

Tasting a dish should be memorable If nothing remains in the memory of a single guest, then I have made a mistake. — Alain Ducasse

I was brought up on a farm in Southwest France, eating farm-fresh produce three times a day. It was paradise on Earth, and it shaped my eating habits and my sense of taste. — Alain Ducasse

I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients. — Alain Ducasse

I didn't want to become a chocolatier among others, buying ready-to-use couverture. I wanted to take the same approach I follow in my cuisine: putting the product first, revealing the authentic taste of the products. — Alain Ducasse

Techniques are not the most difficult to teach. The attitudes chefs take are much more important. — Alain Ducasse

I love to pick tomatoes at the end of the day, when they're still warm from the sun. — Alain Ducasse

The relentless pursuit of being different is very French. — Alain Ducasse

Everywhere in the world there are tensions - economic, political, religious. So we need chocolate. — Alain Ducasse

I have restaurants, bookshops ... but it's not an empire, more ... a puzzle. If it were an empire, all my restaurants would be the same. — Alain Ducasse

The planet's resources are rare; we must consume more ethically and equitably. — Alain Ducasse

I'm anti-globalisation. There is nothing more enriching than to go out into the world and meet people different to you. We must fight the spread of a singular way of thinking and preserve cultural differences. — Alain Ducasse

When you grow up close to poultry and fields and gardens and open-air markets, you can't help but develop an instinct for quality food. — Alain Ducasse

I am a very eco-friendly chef but a guilty air traveller. — Alain Ducasse

In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences. — Alain Ducasse

TV is a deformed vision, an excessive caricature. A chef has to stay an artisan, not become a star. — Alain Ducasse

You take the best ingredients - the best cocoa beans - and you process them in the best traditional way, and you have the best chocolate. — Alain Ducasse

The world forgets about people who are not useful. — Alain Ducasse

My wife Gwenaelle prepares an 'energy shot' for me for breakfast. It's a mix of linseed, cereal, and raisins, with fresh fruit like kiwi. She also adds yogurt for added texture and some pollen and honey for an energy booster. — Alain Ducasse

I don't do the same food in Tokyo that I do in Vegas and vice versa. If I did that, two weeks later I would have no customers. — Alain Ducasse

The image foreigners have of French cuisine is fattening and very fancy food. But it's not true - French food isn't just rich. The word "healthy" doesn't exist in French. We have many, many words, but not that one. To me, healthy means paying close attention to feeding people. — Alain Ducasse

I live in Paris, yet Monaco, where I spend a lot of time, holds a very special place in my heart. — Alain Ducasse

Believe me, I did not come to London to cook farmed fish. All my fish are wild. — Alain Ducasse

I don't think the rating system places too much pressure on chefs. I prefer to put the pressure on my chefs to perform to the top standards. — Alain Ducasse

Classical cooking and molecular gastronomy should remain separate. You can mix two styles and get fusion; any more, and you just get confusion. — Alain Ducasse

The world of wine is more creative than the world of cooking. — Alain Ducasse

With cooking, there's always the tangible and the intangible: that which is in the domain of sentiment, of the individual. — Alain Ducasse

The most classic French dessert around the holidays is the Christmas log, with butter cream. Two flavors. Chocolate and coconut. My first job in the kitchen when I was a boy was to make these Christmas logs. — Alain Ducasse

I have a very nice garden and extraordinary markets, where there are products from the earth and the sea, in the French Basque country. — Alain Ducasse

In each restaurant, I develop a different culinary sensibility. In Paris, I'm more classic, because that's what customers like. In Monaco, it's classic Mediterranean haute cuisine. In London, it's a contemporary French restaurant that I've developed with a U.K. influence and my French know-how. — Alain Ducasse

When I arrived, I didn't understand London customers perfectly, but we've developed the right style with the right price, and step by step, I'm in harmony with London. — Alain Ducasse

I think the French and the Japanese are both obsessed by seasons, small producers, freshness. — Alain Ducasse

The restaurants express the spirit of the chef, the spirit of the city, the country. — Alain Ducasse

I have a very modern way of thinking; the chef is there to lead the team and not just to sit behind the piano. — Alain Ducasse

The real evolution is to learn something new every day - it's very important for chefs to share what they have discovered. — Alain Ducasse

For me, the most luxurious place is somewhere that allows you to feel emotions and pleasures. — Alain Ducasse

I have a passion for luggage - trunks and so on. I have a collection of them, but I can never resist buying another piece. — Alain Ducasse

There are so many impassioned winemakers. I think there are more impassioned winemakers than chefs. — Alain Ducasse

Food is one part of the experience. And it has to be somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the dining experience. But the rest counts as well: The mood, the atmosphere, the music, the feeling, the design, the harmony between what you have on the plate and what surrounds the plate. — Alain Ducasse

Gastronomy is my hobby. I'm simply the casting director. Once I've brought all the right people together, it is they who must work together to tell a story. — Alain Ducasse

When I was younger, I behaved a bit strangely sometimes - lost my temper, did silly things - but little by little, I've gotten better. As a chef, I think you need to do a lot of work on yourself and your temperament. — Alain Ducasse

If I had the choice to travel to two places in Europe, it would be Paris and London. — Alain Ducasse

In France, Christmas is a family holiday. You stay home. New Year's Eve is when you go out. — Alain Ducasse

I only get fat when I eat food cooked by other chefs. At home, my wife does all the cooking. She makes simple things like soups and salads. We both like steamed tofu. — Alain Ducasse

I'm in love with the markets of the world. It's a photograph of a city, a culture. — Alain Ducasse

It's not easy to have success with restaurants in different cities, but I like the challenge. — Alain Ducasse

I prefer to be able to identify what I'm eating. I have to know. — Alain Ducasse

Everything that pushes up out of the earth I love. Everything under the earth, root vegetables, I love to cook. — Alain Ducasse

It is impossible to remain indifferent to Japanese culture. It is a different civilisation where all you have learnt must be forgotten. It is a great intellectual challenge and a gorgeous sensual experience. — Alain Ducasse

If I'm a great artisan of the kitchen, it's because I don't buy my sauces. — Alain Ducasse

When I started cooking the meal at home, after I had started cooking in restaurants, I usually would prepare bay scallops or lobster. — Alain Ducasse

My son, Arzhel, is two, and he eats vegetables twice a day. We have a vegetable garden on our farm in the Southwest, and he gets two baskets, one over each arm, and says, 'Garden, Papa!' and then he eats what he picks. — Alain Ducasse

Cuisine has become too complicated - this is about subject, verb, adjective: duck, turnips, sauce. — Alain Ducasse

I don't like being disappointed by somebody I trust. Fortunately, it rarely happens. — Alain Ducasse

Desserts are like mistresses. They are bad for you. So if you are having one, you might as well have two. — Alain Ducasse

I have an obsession for quality. I work for my guests, not to obtain Michelin stars. — Alain Ducasse

Chefs don't become chefs just to earn stars - that's not the goal. — Alain Ducasse

I love any excuse to work with a mortar and pestle. — Alain Ducasse

In France, I am the fifth artisan to produce his own chocolate, and the others have been doing it for a long time. — Alain Ducasse

At my home in the southwest of France, I grow oak, hazel, and lemon trees in my backyard. — Alain Ducasse

If you don't treat an ingredient and its flavors with respect - if you drown it in oil, for instance - you'll spoil it. — Alain Ducasse

If I am going somewhere exotic, I take an empty suitcase with me to bring back the objects I fall in love with. — Alain Ducasse

What they've found so far in the Amazon is 5 percent of what there is yet to discover to eat in the Amazon because it's completely unknown. I've eaten things I've never eaten before over there. — Alain Ducasse

My grandmother did all the cooking at Christmas. We ate fattened chicken. We would feed it even more so it would be big and fat. — Alain Ducasse

The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I'm fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera. — Alain Ducasse

Failure is enriching. It's also important to accept that you'll make mistakes - it's how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life's negative moments. — Alain Ducasse

London is the most important city in the world for restaurants. — Alain Ducasse

I would never be able to lead the insane lifestyle I do, traveling all over the world, if I wasn't eating food that was simple and healthy. — Alain Ducasse

The Asian airlines have the best wine programs. — Alain Ducasse

For me, going to markets is the best way to understand the soul of a place. — Alain Ducasse

I do most of the cooking in my head. — Alain Ducasse

Our milk chocolate is very chocolaty. In fact, we don't call it milk chocolate - we call it milky chocolate. — Alain Ducasse

It's striking and unique in London how you know to create this alchemy between the concept, the food, the music, the staff. From the beginning to the end, with all these different elements, it tells a full story that you know very well how to develop and cultivate. — Alain Ducasse

Nowadays, food needs to be healthy, local, sustainable and not filled with too much fat, salt or sugar. It should be slow-cooked and seasonal. That's my vision. — Alain Ducasse

Given the number of restaurants I have, I could easily travel all the time - but I try not to. — Alain Ducasse

A man obsessed: obsessed with perfection, sharing, aesthetics, taste, savoir-faire, and much more. — Alain Ducasse

I am overfed, so when I am at home, I stop eating. — Alain Ducasse

I travel the world, and I can see in Toronto the cooking is very personal. These people cook with their hearts. — Alain Ducasse

You need a good gardener and a good fisherman. The cook is not required. — Alain Ducasse

If my cuisine were to be defined by just one taste, it would be that of subtle, aromatic, extra-virgin olive oil. — Alain Ducasse

In London, there is no need for 25 high-end gastronomic restaurants. That would be too much. — Alain Ducasse

Everyone talks about Spanish influences, but where is it? ... Tell me 10 great Spanish restaurants in London ... You can't give me the addresses. Nor in Paris. — Alain Ducasse

I don't like being a celebrity. — Alain Ducasse

The proportion of ingredients is important, but the final result is also a matter of how you put them together. Equilibrium is key. — Alain Ducasse

To make my meal, I go to the market and to the garden, and then I decide what I'm going to do. That's a great pleasure. — Alain Ducasse

I concentrate in my work on preserving and displaying the original flavor from each ingredient in a dish. — Alain Ducasse