Alain Ducasse
Alain Ducasse was born in 1956 in Castel-Sarrazin, southwestern France, and grew up on his family’s farm. Alain’s farm memories are of the smells that nourished his passion for cooking: the smell of home-cooked food like mushrooms, vegetables, and veal blanquette.
To his mother’s chagrin, Alain decided to become a chef when he was 12 years old before entering a professional kitchen or restaurant. She put him to work at a trucker’s rest stop, which she thought was a nightmare. Alain washed dishes and plucked hens and turkeys outside in the bitter cold of winter. She attempted to frighten Alain, but it failed.
Alain Ducasse Accident Avion 1984
Alain Ducasse was flying to Courchevel in the Alps on a Piper Aztec aircraft with some of his chefs. It was foggy, and the pilot couldn’t see nicely when they suddenly saw the mountain face and crashed. Everyone died except Alain. Alain lay there for almost seven hours in the snow, bleeding, hoping for someone to rescue him.
Alain Ducasse, while speaking about the incident in one of the articles, mentions, “I read an article in Le Monde newspaper talking about survivors. There were four categories, and I related to the biggest one, when you are in a state of happiness, or “the wonders of the beyond”. That’s what happened to me before I was rescued. I left the real world and I was briefly in a state of comfort and warmth. I felt I was in another world. It felt like dying without dying; it’s an in-between state. And then I was back to a real world of suffering.”
Alain Ducasse Age
Ducasse was born in the southwestern French town of Orthez and raised on a farm in Castel-Sarrazin. Ducasse began his apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and the Bordeaux hotel school in 1972 when he was sixteen. Following his apprenticeship, he began working at Michel Guérard’s restaurant in Eugénie-Les-Bains and for Gaston Lenôtre during the summer. Then, in 1977, Ducasse started working as an assistant under legendary chef Roger Vergé, creator of Cuisine du Soleil, at Moulin de Mougins, where he learned the Provençal cooking methods for which he became famous. Today Alain is 66 years old and has achieved so much that he is one of the top chefs in the world.
Alain Ducasse Hotels
In 1987, he set a four-year time limit for himself to obtain three Michelin stars for Le Louis XV in Monaco. Alain completed it in 33 months. He was the youngest chef to receive three stars, but Alain was only content for five minutes. In 2014, Alain decided to remove meat from the menu at Plaza Athénée in Paris. As a result, Alain has been awarded 12 Michelin stars, and all his hotels have at least 3 Michelin stars.
In an article, he said, “I have many restaurants in Paris: I took over Le Meurice (from Yannick Alléno) the year before to serve contemporary French cuisine, so I had to tell another story at Plaza Athénée that was in line with the times we are living in. The idea is that when I grew up on the farm, we didn’t eat so much animal protein; vegetables and grains are just as important. It’s better for our health and our planet.”
Chinese caviar: Alain has two cooking schools in France and one in Manila. He would like to open one in China as well. He claims that China produces the best caviar in the world and that no one can match it.
Floating my boat: Ducasse Sur Seine (in Paris) is where Alain wanted a unique restaurant on the Seine river. The solution was an electric boat that was noise-free, serving contemporary French cuisine. It took five years to develop the largest electric boat for a river with a kitchen. It was inaugurated in 2018 and had 100 seats and a private dining room on the upper deck. The kitchen and wine cellar are located on the lower level. It is the most enjoyable way to see Paris.
Image source: Pintrest
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