Interview: Alain Ducasse on Running a Successful Restaurant Empire
Photo Caption: Legendary chef Alain Ducasse has stretched beyond fine dining.
Skift Take
Alain Ducasse is a living legend with 20 Michelin stars and 30 restaurants bearing his name. Though he is famous for running France’s gilded dining rooms in its most expensive venues, the chef has recently expanded his business at a breakneck pace by focusing on multicultural cuisine and more affordable restaurant concepts.
Chef Alain Ducasse is a businessman who does not like to talk about money. In French culture, especially in the upper echelons of Parisian society, it is considered "le mal goût" (poor taste), to speak of or flaunt one’s money. Yet, he is a multimillionaire securing lucrative licensing deals at hotels around the world and setting culinary standards since 2005, when he became the first chef to have three restaurants awarded with three Michelin stars at the same time.
Critics have lambasted him for creating restaurants only for the superrich (waitstaff at the 2016 opening of Ore at Versailles wore powdered Renaissance wigs). But his recent, more accessible venues run counter to that narrative — which Ducasse himself rejects in his book "Manger Est un Acte Citoyen," or, to eat is a citizen’s act. In it, he writes, "To eat well is not a question of purchasing power. It’s above all a question of awareness, learning, and behavior. Everyone can learn to choose products of quality, w
