“Excellence is a word that has always intrigued me,” said Alain Ducasse, considered the world’s foremost French chef, at Forbes Travel Guide’s recent Monaco Summit as he received the Award of Excellence by Baccarat. “Because excellence is like the horizon line: it’s a direction, but you never reach it.”
That’s why the prolific chef keeps moving forward. He recently came out with a new book (more on that below), opened new restaurants (Alain Ducasse Baccarat in Paris and Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse Roma), expanded his Le Chocolat boutiques in Paris, and plans to debut Maison du Peuple, a global culinary center with a restaurant, an atelier and a chef-in-residence outside of Paris in 2026. And that’s on top of maintaining his empire of acclaimed restaurants; chocolate, coffee, ice cream and cookie factories; and cooking schools worldwide.
We sat down with Ducasse in Monaco, not far from where he made a name for himself at Hôtel de Paris Monte-Carlo’s Louis XV, before he was honored with the award. With the aid of a translator, the French-speaking culinary master shared insights into his enduring inspiration, his philosophy of culinary transmission and his vision for a sustainable gastronomic future, all while reflecting on a career that has redefined fine dining.
How do you feel about winning the Forbes Travel Guide Award of Excellence by Baccarat, especially in your home of Monaco?
I feel very honored because I am deeply rooted in excellence, and it all started here in Monaco at Louis XV. So, of course, that’s a great recognition.
It all started here, thanks to the principality of Monaco, Monte-Carlo Société des Bains de Mer and the princely family. And it continues to be the center of excellence among all of my restaurants.
What do you consider your most significant contribution to gastronomy?
It’s the transmission of knowledge, the transmission of savoir faire, of know-how. I qualify that by saying faire école — transmit, share my language, publish books, create schools, continue to educate.
Of all the chefs running Alain Ducasse restaurants in the world today, 85% have worked at Louis XV here in Monaco.
How do you balance maintaining the traditions of French cuisine with the innovation that’s necessary to stay relevant?
First, you have to master the basics of French cuisine. You have to master it by heart, the DNA of French cuisine.
It’s a combination of tradition and evolution. We add our contemporary touch to this base of French cuisine. And that’s how, for example, we’ve been developing recipes and being more sustainable with less fat, less sugar, less salt. That’s who we are. We move on.
Touching on sustainability, I know that’s important for you. What steps does the restaurant world need to take to ensure a more sustainable future?
Everyone has to do a little bit. If you try to think global, it will be complicated, but everyone has to do a little to become more sustainable. And as chefs, of course, we do it in a restaurant, but we also do it in our schools. We are really teaching and learning how to become a citizen chef, a chef to cater to tomorrow’s needs, taking into account these principles of being more sustainable.
So, we teach how to cook without as many animal proteins as we used to in the past. We teach alternatives, and again with less fat, less sugar, less salt. I am not saying no more animal proteins but better and lesser quantity.
What dish or culinary experience best represents you as a chef?
It will be here in Monaco — the flagship is here. That would be Louis XV in the fine dining definition of the culinary experience.
Where do you find inspiration for new dishes?
It’s constant. It’s daily. Whatever I see, whatever I touch, an idea might come. The world inspires me.
I ate Syrian food in Dubai, I ate Mexican food in New York and that provided inspiration. Last week was very intense in terms of traveling. Culinary talents are everywhere. It’s important that those talented chefs, step by step, integrate into their cuisine the fact that we need to be more sustainable and eat less fat, less sugar, less meat. I think that they are, but it should be more and more. It has to somehow become part of your DNA.
You have the only Alain Ducasse restaurant at sea aboard Ponant’s Edge List-winning Le Commandant Charcot. The ship goes to extreme environments, like the North Pole, so how do you create those menus?
We work with our chefs at Ducasse Conseil [the chef’s consultancy firm]. And, of course, we always encourage the chefs to go and source locally. Of course, it’s not the majority, but whenever it’s possible. For example, I was on Le Commandant Charcot in December, and we went to see a fisherman, and they found seven kilos of wild salmon, nearly albinos with light pink flesh. We cooked it for dinner like this with white butter and spinach. And that worked very well.
What’s the most challenging part of having consistently high standards across all of the restaurants?
We’re trying, we’re trying. It’s like a quest — the quest for excellence. You look right in front of you, and you have the excellence as a different direction.
You know you will never get there completely, but it’s a goal that you’re trying to achieve.
Speaking of goals, are there any other culinary goals or projects that you still want to achieve?
Traveling, discovering, continuing training. I am very curious of many, many things — food, architecture, etc. So, I’m really looking forward to learning more, to learn every day what I didn’t know the day before. And faire école, transmitting and sharing everything that we know through books, schools, master classes, etc.
You recently came out with a new book, DNA. What makes this one special?
The recipe book called DNA tells the story of three of my chefs who have the same background. They all have been trained in the Ducasse cuisines in Monaco. Those three chefs are Jean-Philippe [Blondet], heading the Alain Ducasse in The Dorchester in London; Emmanuel [Pilon] is heading Louis XV Alain Ducasse here; and Amaury [Bouhours] is heading Le Meurice Alain Ducasse in Paris.
Despite the common knowledge, they are delivering three completely different cuisines. The book tells their story, what they are aiming to do and what they are doing in the restaurant.
What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learned in your career?
It’s not easy to remain curious and open to other influences. Sometimes you really have to force yourself. That’s why my answer would be to keep being curious all the time.
In the social media era, how do you maintain a memorable dining experience?
I see social media as a positive thing. You can keep yourself informed more easily. So, you have to see it on the positive side. It’s a plus but not something that puts more pressure on our chefs’ shoulders. It’s something in addition.
If we are informed, it also means that our customers are informed, too. So, we need to be more adventurous, bring more innovation and try to think the same way our customers are thinking, to always astonish them and seduce them.
How do you define hospitality?
Taking care. While our customer is in our universe, taking care of him from the very beginning, from when he enters the restaurant until he leaves, and try to build for him the most memorable souvenirs or experiences. Knowing that the souvenir is a part of something that you can actually see and touch, the tangible and something that is kind of a mystery up in the air.
But I think that we can also have a say in this intangible, mysterious part that will create the souvenir for guests at the end.
Going back to what you just said about social media, hospitality is, in the end, the most important thing in our society today. In a world that is so super connected, we need to keep on carrying one another. That’s hospitality for me.
You’ve mentored so many great chefs. What do you look for in a promising chef?
They need to be passionate. I need to see it in their eyes, in what they say, in the way they talk about what they do. I need to feel that this man or woman who wants to become a chef really has passion in himself or herself.
What would you want for your final meal?
Being on the Mediterranean seaside with some local fruits and a red snapper that would have just been fished by the local fisherman. No seasoning, no oil, nothing. Just grilled with the skin on and I would eat everything. That would be perfect.
