Mediterranean magic

Alain Ducasse has a reputation for being shy. Guarded is probably closer to it. Under the media spotlight he doesn't seem comfortable unless he's holding a knife and working his craft. Then he lets his hands do the talking.

What represents him best is his restaurant, Le Louis XV in the Hôtel de Paris, Monte Carlo. Here he has turned an over-priced tourist-trap for jet-setters into one of the best tables in France. He earned it three Michelin stars at a time when the gastronomic press was arguing that no hotel restaurant would ever merit the ultimate accolade again.

His pedigree goes some way to explaining his success. He learnt his craft with the late Alain Chapel, most inventive of the Lyonnais super-chefs during the 1980s, and with Michel Guérard and Roger Vergé.

Last month Ducasse paid a flying visit to London to discuss the progress of Monte's, a new dining club in Sloane Street, Chelsea, due to open in July, for which he is doing consultancy work. He found time to drop in on Jean-Christophe Novelli in the Four Seasons kitchens and rattled off a couple of dishes for Masterclass.

One, Légumes des jardins de Provence mijotés à la truffe noire écrasée un filet d'huile d'olive Ardo‹no, vieux vinaigres et fleur de sel, illustrates how to give designer-label, fashionable food a good name.

The second, artichauts piquants et blettes mijotés au lard paysan en cocotte de fonte, is best described as high-class busking.

"You'll have to watch carefully," the great man advised, "because I'm not going to follow the printed recipe I've given you."

He then proceeded to concoct the kind of delicious Mediterranean vegetable stew which ought to be in every bistro along the Riviera and never is.

Star performer

Born in 1956 in the Landes region of south-west France, Alain Ducasse was - until recently - the youngest chef to be awarded Michelin's highest accolade.

At 16 he started an apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais, Soustons, before attending the Bordeaux School of Catering. He then talked his way into Michel Guérard's kitchen by offering to work without pay!

Ducasse's "maître spirituel" was the late Alain Chapel, for whom he worked for almost two years, 1978-1979, at his restaurant near Lyon.

In 1981 Ducasse was appointed head chef at La Terrasse restaurant in Hôtel Juana on the Côte d'Azur. Two Michelin stars later he was approached by Prince Rainier to revamp the cuisine at Monte Carlo's Hôtel de Paris.

After opening the refurbished Louis XV restaurant in 1987 his contract stipulated he had four years to earn the restaurant three Michelin stars or lose his job.

James Suckling, writing in the Wine Spectator sums up Ducasse: "He is a man driven to excellence - not only because of a passion for his vocation, but an inner desire to succeed. He learnt his trade under the wings of many of France's greatest chefs, but that only accounts for a part of his insatiable thirst for greatness. He was the sole survivor of a crash of a private plane in 1984.

"Says Ducasse: ‘I gained 10 years of experience in my life from it. Now I am harder on myself than anyone else. I must always strive to dobetter.' "