Quotes from Alain Ducasse

It is impossible to remain indifferent to Japanese culture. It is a different civilisation where all you have learnt must be forgotten. It is a great intellectual challenge and a gorgeous sensual experience.

In France, I am the fifth artisan to produce his own chocolate, and the others have been doing it for a long time.

Believe me, I did not come to London to cook farmed fish. All my fish are wild.

Everywhere in the world there are tensions - economic, political, religious. So we need chocolate.

I have restaurants, bookshops... but it's not an empire, more... a puzzle. If it were an empire, all my restaurants would be the same.

The world of wine is more creative than the world of cooking.

The Asian airlines have the best wine programs.

London is the most important city in the world for restaurants.

I have a very nice garden and extraordinary markets, where there are products from the earth and the sea, in the French Basque country.

The planet's resources are rare; we must consume more ethically and equitably.

My grandmother did all the cooking at Christmas. We ate fattened chicken. We would feed it even more so it would be big and fat.

I do most of the cooking in my head.

In London, there is no need for 25 high-end gastronomic restaurants. That would be too much.

Gastronomy is my hobby. I'm simply the casting director. Once I've brought all the right people together, it is they who must work together to tell a story.

I don't think the rating system places too much pressure on chefs. I prefer to put the pressure on my chefs to perform to the top standards.

Given the number of restaurants I have, I could easily travel all the time - but I try not to.

The proportion of ingredients is important, but the final result is also a matter of how you put them together. Equilibrium is key.

The relentless pursuit of being different is very French.

At my home in the southwest of France, I grow oak, hazel, and lemon trees in my backyard.

You need a good gardener and a good fisherman. The cook is not required.

The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I'm fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera.

You take the best ingredients - the best cocoa beans - and you process them in the best traditional way, and you have the best chocolate.

My wife Gwenaelle prepares an 'energy shot' for me for breakfast. It's a mix of linseed, cereal, and raisins, with fresh fruit like kiwi. She also adds yogurt for added texture and some pollen and honey for an energy booster.

I travel the world, and I can see in Toronto the cooking is very personal. These people cook with their hearts.