Alain Ducasse Quotations

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.

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.

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.

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

The Asian airlines have the best wine programs.

The relentless pursuit of being different is very French.

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.

The planets resources are rare; we must consume more ethically and equitably.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

He is the first chef-restaurateur who has dared to admit openly, and even elevate to the status of a doctrine, his belief that a chef can serve his customers with the world's finest food without constantly slaving at the stove himself. ... I have a very modern way of thinking; the chef is there to lead the team and not just to sit behind the piano.

It's a great pleasure for me and my team. It was a surprise. A good surprise.

It's a Mediterranean garden on the roofs of Aoyama.