Las Vegas Weekly

December 11, 2008 · 11:15 AM

Alain Ducasse: From French farm boy to globetrotting culinary king

By Robin Leach

Alain Ducasse peruses reading material.

Photo: TVT

Superstar chef Alain Ducasse starts his fifth year at his Mix restaurant in Las Vegas this month. He still insists on making a round-the-world trip every two months so he can stay here for a three-day visit.

At his palace of fine food atop The Hotel at Mandalay Bay, Alain told me: “I love Vegas. It is a great, unique city. To me it’s become part of the Big Five: Paris, New York, London and Tokyo. I can’t forget Monte Carlo, though, because that’s where I live!”

It’s also where he found worldwide fame. I first met him at the humble Hotel Juana in Juan Les Pins during a Cannes Film Festival visit and was absolutely bedazzled by his culinary skills. So it was no surprise when he was picked in 1987 by Monaco’s royal family to run the extraordinary Louis XV restaurant at the prestigious Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo.

Photo: TVT

Alain Ducasse.

Critics and foodies salivated and raved -- and Alain by the age of 33 had turned his 33-month-old gastronomic pleasure playground into a three-star Michelin guide winner, the first hotel restaurant to be awarded the honor.

We’ve remained friends ever since as he’s gone from the kitchen to innkeeper and creator of haute couture restaurants. I’ve watched with admiration as he built his empire up in Paris, Hong Kong, Saint Tropez, Mauritius, London, New York and Tokyo.

In fact, when I chatted with him at Mix this week, he’d just flown in from Tokyo after the opening of his newest restaurant there. This time he’d partnered with Chanel for the new Beige food concept, which they will also now open in London and then New York.

“I’ll stop when we have a total of 20,” he told me. “I think that’s the right number. Just one more now in Paris perhaps. I love the fact that people today want contemporary food that is uncomplicated. We’ve kept all the basics of fine French food, but now we don’t overwhelm with too big a meal. They are smaller but with even more flavoring intensity.”

Photo: TVT

Alain Ducasse at his restaurant Mix.

It has been an incredible journey for Alain, who was born on a farm and literally raised among the ducks and geese surrounded by mushrooms! He started his career as a 16-year-old teenager in the kitchens of famous chef restaurants in the South of France!

In 2002, GQ Magazine’s Men of the Year issue saluted him with the Best Chef Award. In 2003, he was named Finest Chef in the World by the American Academy of Hospitality Science, and by 2005 at age 50, he was the only French chef to have nine Michelin stars at once!

Today he is no longer in the kitchen but is the driving force and inspiration for the restaurants’ recipes, ambiance, design, tableware, kitchens and talented chefs.

“It is the executive chef who is responsible for making it perfect every day. Here in Vegas, Sylvan, my executive chef who lives in Napa and commutes to Vegas, is in charge of all the chefs of my American restaurants,” Alain said.

All told, the Groupe Alain Ducasse restaurants hold 15 Michelin stars, and he also runs the famous Jules Verne restaurant at the Eiffel Tower in Paris through 2016. Over the years, he’s also managed to write 16 cookbooks -- and he proudly showed me his brand new Ducasse Made Simple, where he’s taken his 100 best recipes and with co-author Sophie Dudemaine simplified them for the home cook to prepare identically.

“It’s tough flying around the world every two months,” he summed up for me. “Tonight it’s a red-eye to New York for three days there and then back to Christmas. In January, I’ll set off again to go around the world, but I always look forward to coming to Vegas. It’s the fun highlight of my travels each time.”

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