17 Facts About Alain Ducasse

Alain Ducasse operates a number of restaurants, including Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, which holds three stars in the Michelin Guide.

In 1972, when he was sixteen, Alain Ducasse began an apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and at the Bordeaux hotel school.

In 1977, Alain Ducasse started working as an assistant at Moulin de Mougins under legendary chef Roger Verge, creator of Cuisine du Soleil, and learned the Provencal cooking methods for which he was later known.

In 1986, Alain Ducasse was offered the chef position at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, with management including the hotel's Le Louis XV.

In 1988, Alain Ducasse expanded beyond the restaurant industry and opened La Bastide de Moustiers, a twelve-bedroom country inn in Provence and he began attaining financial interests in other Provence hotels.

Alain Ducasse became the first chef to have three restaurants awarded three Michelin stars at the same time.

That restaurant closed in 2007 when Alain Ducasse chose to open a restaurant in Las Vegas named Mix, which later went on to earn one star in the Michelin Red Guide.

In early 2008, Alain Ducasse opened Adour, at the St Regis Hotel on 16th and K Street in Washington, DC, and has opened the more casual Bistro Benoit New York, at 60 West 55th Street.

On 2 July 2011, Alain Ducasse prepared a multi-course gala dinner for the wedding of Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock.

Alain Ducasse became the first chef to own restaurants carrying three Michelin Stars in three cities.

Alain Ducasse is only one of two chefs to hold 21 Michelin stars throughout his career.

Alain Ducasse has been special guest in the US and Italian versions of MasterChef.

Alain Ducasse chose Monegasque citizenship in order to take advantage of the principality's tax rates, giving up his French nationality as Monegasque people were not allowed to hold dual citizenship at this time.

Alain Ducasse has opened a cooking school for the general public in Paris and another for chefs, which works for the European Space Agency to develop astronaut meals to be taken into space.

In 2004 Alain Ducasse opened a restaurant in a resort near Biarritz, in the French Basque Country.

However, after several bombing attacks by Irrintzi, an armed Basque nationalist organization, which accused him of being a speculator and of "folkloring" the Basque Country, Alain Ducasse decided to leave the Basque Country.

In 2010 Alain Ducasse opened a miX restaurant at the W Hotel in Vieques, Puerto Rico, but he closed it in 2012.