Alain Ducasse
What do you get when one of the world’s contemporary culinary masters, Alain Ducasse, summons around 240 international chefs – with around 300 Michelin stars between them – to his restaurant Le Louis XV in Monaco to celebrate its 25th anniversary? Answer: some kind of gastronomic orgasmathon.
That’s what I’m expecting from this weekend. I’m in Monaco, a guest of Monsieur Ducasse, and representing The Australian Financial Review.
I am one of a small Australian contingent: the stars of which are Australia-based chefs Guillaume Brahimi, Serge Dansereau and Tetsuya Wakuda.
The centrepiece of this ‘by invite only’ extravaganza is tomorrow’s Mediterranean market place, where local producers will present what Ducasse considers to be the 100 most emblematic products of the French Riviera. Chef invitees will take part in demonstrations, tasting and cooking shows.
In addition, 14 chefs have been hand-picked to reinterpret, in their own style, a dish that pays tribute to the Riviera.
I write this from my decadent digs at the Monte Carlo Bay hotel: it took over 34 hours and three flights to get here. In the hotel group’s stable are 33 restaurants (how many meals can I squeeze in to three days?), four casinos and a couple of nightclubs, including the acclaimed Buddha Bar Monte-Carlo.
Have all my Christmases come at once? Thanks to Monsieur Ducasse, I think so.
The articles I write from this trip will appear in The Australian Financial Review’s Life And Leisure section. I’ll let you know when they run.
