London's catering is sexy and dynamic – Ducasse believes

Alain Ducasse smiles as he reflects on the difficulty of running a restaurant empire that stretches across eight countries and includes three-Michelin-star establishments in Monte Carlo, Paris and London. He queries this interpretation of his view.

“Over the last 10 years certainly, London developed the largest variety of different restaurants compared with other cities,” the soft-spoken chef says in an interview at Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester. “New York continues to develop — maybe you’re at the same level as New York — but it entered into competition later and in the last 10 years London has become very contemporary, very sexy, very dynamic.
“In London, many different concepts have developed for restaurants. A restaurant isn’t only the food. It’s also the service, the room, the design, etc. There are many different components today.”
“In London, it hasn’t been easy to develop fine dining,” he says. “When I arrived, I didn’t understand London customers perfectly, but we’ve developed the right style with the right price and step by step I’m in harmony with London.
“In each restaurant, I develop a different culinary sensibility. In Paris, I’m more classic, because that’s what customers like. In Monaco, it’s classic Mediterranean haute cuisine. In London, it’s a contemporary French restaurant that I’ve developed with a U.K. influence and my French know-how. In New York, it’s also contemporary and we integrate more American influence.
“When you are in New York, customers are very demanding because they have choice,” Ducasse says. “New Yorkers travel around the world and when they return they are demanding. It’s not easy to have success with restaurants in different cities but I like the challenge.”
“Twenty years ago, U.K. cuisine was, for me, old European cuisine,” Ducasse says. “But today it’s not an evolution, it’s a revolution. The century changed and U.K. cuisine changed with it. I taste classic English cuisine and I like it when it’s perfectly made.
“We have beautiful produce, beautiful fish, beautiful game, beautiful beef, lamb, duck, not chicken — no, no — but you have many vegetables. That’s the reality and if you have the best, it’s easy to have beautiful cuisine.” (Source: Bloomberg)