{"id":31565,"date":"2013-04-29T15:08:16","date_gmt":"2013-04-29T13:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/hotels-et-gastronomie-stars-en-cuisine-20130429.html"},"modified":"2023-08-01T16:22:33","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T14:22:33","slug":"hotels-and-gastronomy-stars-in-the-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/en\/hotels-and-gastronomy-stars-in-the-kitchen","title":{"rendered":"Hotels and gastronomy: stars in the kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the beginning was Auguste Escofer, the \"chef to kings\". And C\u00e9sar Ritz too, the \"king of hoteliers\". At the beginning of the 20th century, these luminous duettists performed a magni\ufb01cantly orchestrated act, full of the glamour of great luxury. While one, on the stage, created sumptuous decors for the pleasure of crowned heads - the Grand Hotel in Monaco and Rome, the Ritz in Paris, the Savoy and Carlton in London - the other, in the kitchen, created \ufb02amboyant composi- tions for the stars of the moment: the R\u00e9jane salad, Melba peaches, Sarah Bernhardt strawberries...<\/p>\n

Hard-hitting recruitments<\/h2>\n

Reminiscent of that delightful Belle \u00c9poque or a cyclical movement of time, grand hotels and heralds of gastronomy once again united their destinies at the turn of this century. In France, this return of the \ufb02amme took shape in the mid-90s, when Jo\u00ebl Robuchon and Alain Ducasse took over from each other at the helm of the H\u00f4tel du Parc restaurant in Paris. The hotelier behind these high-profile appointments, Fran\u00e7ois Delahaye, then took charge of the Plaza Ath\u00e9n\u00e9e and applied the same recipes, bringing Alain Ducasse into the kitchens of the palace before promoting the growing talent of Yannick Alleno a few years later at the Meurice, the other Parisian establishment in the Dorchester Collection. Alleno recently decided to practise his art exclusively in the exclusive snowy setting of 1947, the restaurant at the Cheval Blanc in Courchevel, the hotel launched by the LVMH group (see interviews).<\/p>\n

\"ToToday, in the great capitals of taste - Paris, London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo in particular - every self-respecting palace must have a 'celebrity chef' in its ranks. And for new arrivals, shopping around for these new stars is highly recommended. Mandarin Oriental, for example, has sought out Thierry Marx, the explosive molecular agitator with two Michelin stars at Ch\u00e2teau de Cordeillan-Bages, to take charge of the Sur Mesure restaurant in its new Paris hotel. These piano-playing virtuosos are giving a welcome boost to a stale sauce. Until now, luxury hotel restaurants were often pompous conservatories where chefs interpreted the great classics in moderato mode. Good taste, of course, but a museum cuisine that now only attracts business travellers weary of the idea of leaving their cocoon for an evening, or local gourmets in search of prestigious golds. In short, there's nothing to make the restaurant stand out...<\/p>\n

New recipe for success<\/h2>\n

\"\"But if the palaces have suddenly taken a liking to the grandes toques, it's obviously because of their extraordinary talent, but also and above all because of the worldwide resonance of their fame. \"I bring my brand image as well as my expertise. This expertise is a guarantee of quality and longevity for the restaurant\".<\/em>explains chef Pierre Gagnaire.<\/p>\n

The new idyll between the hotel industry and haute cuisine can also be explained by a change in business model. It's a win-win situation, with chefs finding hoteliers to be solid partners who support their appetite for creation by bearing with the low profitability of excellence. After all, truffles, caviar, the endless stream of kitchen and dining room staff - almost one for every place setting - all come at a price that even high prices cannot fully offset...<\/p>\n

For its part, the hotel industry has entered the age of the manager, a world where luxury brands and hotel owners want the best. \"The Mandarin Oriental brand has a duty to create innovative experiences for our customers, both local and foreign. That's why we set the benchmark for the best in the city a\ufb01n order to deliver legendary establishments in every destination where we operate. Our mission is to ensure that we work with the best.<\/em>says David Nicholls, Director of Food & Beve- rage at Mandarin Oriental.<\/p>\n

France in the stars<\/h2>\n

\"AlainWhat these decision-makers are looking for above all are 'bankable' names. In this area, it seems that the French cui- sine is anything but bankable. has been<\/em>The world gastronomic map is there to prove it. The world's gastronomic map is there to prove it. Alain Ducasse and Jo\u00ebl Robuchon have both demonstrated their sense of ubiquity, collecting stars - around forty between them worldwide - including several restaurants with three Michelin macaroons. At the Plaza Ath\u00e9n\u00e9e, the H\u00f4tel de Paris in Monaco and the Dorchester in London for Alain Ducasse; at the Hotel Lisboa in Macau, the MGM in Las Vegas and the Atelier Robuchon in Hong Kong for Jo\u00ebl Robuchon, in addition to his restaurant in a rebuilt French ch\u00e2teau in the heart of Tokyo.<\/p>\n

Following in their footsteps, other 'top chefs' have started to play the globetrotter. Gourmets can enjoy the cuisine of Yannick Alleno in the Moorish setting of the Royal Mansour in Marrakech, and soon under the coconut trees of the Cheval Blanc Randheli in the Maldives. They can taste or re-taste Guy Savoy's signature dishes - artichoke soup with black truffle, sea bass with sweet spices - in two mega-resort casinos, Marina Bay Sands in Singapore and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Even the discreet Anne-Sophie Pic has left her historic home in Valence to open a restaurant at the Beau Rivage in Lausanne. That's saying a lot... Of course, in their time, the likes of Bocuse, Verg\u00e9, Troisgros and Len\u00f4tre had already put their noses outside their kitchens to travel the world. But never as far. Nor so far, nor so fast.<\/p>\n

Pierre Gagnaire's creative fantasia has also won over a number of brands: Mandarin Oriental, InterContinental, Lotte - a Korean group with operations in Seoul and Moscow - and more recently Waldorf Astoria in Berlin. \"The world is globalised, and means of communication are easier. I was in Paris yesterday and I'm in Berlin today. In the meantime, I've been able to call all my restaurants around the world. I couldn't have done all that twenty years ago\".<\/em>said the Grand Chief, emphasising that \"to succeed, it requires hard work, rigour and listening to the expectations of our partners. And that takes a lot of energy.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>
\nOn the other side of the Atlantic, celebrity chefs are also in the limelight, most of them Americans by adoption, such as the Frenchmen Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the Japanese Nobu Matsushisa, the Austrian Wolfgang Puck and the British Gordon Ramsay. This bad boy of the kitchen, who runs numerous establishments in London but whose reputation has spread beyond national borders thanks to the reality TV show \"Nightmare in the Kitchen\", is even said to be the best paid chef in the world, with an annual income of 38 million dollars, according to the top 10 list compiled by Forbes magazine. Far ahead of Alain Ducasse, the only Frenchman in the ranking, in sixth place with an income of 12 million dollars between June 2011 and June 2012.<\/p>\n

Businessmen in white hats<\/h2>\n

Adding the quali\ufb01cative of 'company' to their status as 'chef', these businessmen apply their talent to derivative products and contemporary restaurant concepts. In much the same way as haute couture brands have extended their ranges to ready-to-wear. Some have even built up veritable empires. With its many bistros, pizzerias, CUT luxury steakhouses and top-of-the-range Spago restaurants, Wolfgang Puck's world generates almost 400 million dollars in turnover every year.<\/p>\n

\"Jean-GeorgesFor his part, Jean-Georges Vongerichten has launched Culinary Concepts, a consultancy that has forged a close relationship with the Starwood Hotels group. Alongside his signature restaurants in New York, including the three-star Jean-Georges at the Trump Hotel, the chef concocts menus for W, M\u00e9ridien and St Regis hotels around the world. With several menus in his hand: Market, a contemporary cuisine concept with a French flavour, and Spice Market, inspired by Asian street food, as well as the steak houses J&G and J&G Grill.<\/p>\n

Far from achieving these quasi-industrial developments, a number of French chefs have also set up structures, sprinkling here and there brands that are appreciated by hoteliers: Les Ateliers for Jo\u00ebl Robuchon, La Grande Table and STAY for Yannick Alleno, Spoon, MIX and Spoon for the Ducasse group. \"We choose the brand according to the local competition and the positioning of the hotel. For a very modern establishment, it will be Spoon or, for example, MIX, as recently at the W in St Petersburg, but never Benoit, with its Parisian bistro image\".<\/em>explains Laurent Plantier, CEO of the Alain Ducasse Group. Does this ongoing globalisation lead to a standardisation of tastes, a copying and pasting of experiences? Probably, in some cases, as the temptation is great to repeat dishes, even excellent ones, that have proved their worth elsewhere. \"Never!\" cries Pierre Gagnaire, who considers himself to be \"an art director who transcribes local culture through the \ufb01ltre of his sensibility. I try to get a feel for the city and its atmosphere. In Berlin, for example, we offer soups and lake fish, and we take into account the beer culture. So many subtle details that have to be part of the restaurant's DNA.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Who turns the sauces?<\/h2>\n

Laurent Plantier describes the recipe for success of his establishments: \"We start from a French base, but we adapt it to suit local tastes and, above all, local products. Alain Ducasse's philosophy is to be as close as possible to the producer. Meat, vegetables, fish: everything is local. Except for the olive oil, of course!<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the question inevitably arises when you see all these chefs playing the \ufb01lles de l'air: but who is turning the sauces? That's without counting on the \ufb01deligious seconds who run the place in the absence of the master, like Franck Cerutti, who has always been Alain Ducasse's understudy at the Louis XV in Monaco. And for each of their new openings, these entrepreneurs can count on students trained at their school, a veritable international taste brigade that exports the French culinary tradition, its wines and its crockery to the ends of the earth.<\/p>\n

This training is one of the most strategic ways of ensuring the continued development of restoration groups for these global stars. We have the demand to open five restaurants a year, but first we need to have solid teams,\" stresses Laurent Plantier. Our growth is controlled, starting 15 years ago and reaching 28 restaurants today. <\/em>New orders are already being taken, particularly in emerging countries, with restaurants that will have the added advantage of acting as \"rabatteurs\" for the parent companies. Doha for Alain Ducasse, Mumbai, Beirut and Bangkok for Jo\u00ebl Robuchon: it is on the spot, in each destination, that world cuisine is played out, and no longer on the plate.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n