Interview with Yannick Alleno, Hôtel Cheval Blanc Courchevel

What does a renowned chef bring to hotel catering?

Yannick Alleno - For a long time, the gourmet restaurant was a place apart in a hotel. Hoteliers thought it was incidental, when in fact it is essential.

A big name in the culinary world obviously brings a media aura. But we are also, and above all, team managers and wise administrators. When you're investing millions in your establishment, it's important to have a chef who knows how to turn a profit...

You've launched your own catering group. Is this a logical next step in your career?

Y. A. - In a way, Alain Ducasse invented this evolution in the profession, and there are a few of us who are part of it. I'm an entrepreneur at heart, and that's why I like to develop new concepts, like Terroir Parisien or STAY, 'relaxed' gastronomic restaurants. Being supported by a hotel group gives me a certain amount of freedom to think about how my cuisine is going to evolve. Working with LVMH for the 1947 restaurant in Courchevel opened the door to some rather crazy experiments, like these veal racks marinated in barrels of Château d'Yquem. Today, I want to play a different kind of music. The nouvelle cuisine that I grew up in taught us to respect the right way of cooking, but banned fermenting or stewing meat. Molecular cuisine gave us a more emotional approach to dishes, but not everything was finished either.

I'd like to lay the foundations for a different kind of kitchen, a modern kitchen.

What is the basis of this cuisine?

Y. A. - If you look at the DNA of French cuisine - the juices and stocks - it hasn't changed much since Escoffier. In my laboratory, I work with five people on new processes, not to dilute the flavours of products in water, but to extract them at their origin, to find that quintessence, something pure and highly concentrated. Then, like a winemaker, I blend tastes to create dishes.