Alain Ducasse on the connectedness of every participant to the final product | Hacker News Reader

Alain Ducasse on the connectedness of every participant to the final product

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31 pointswowsig18 comments

This is like Jiro Dreams of Sushi[1] but from a System's View. There are some takeaways in how to put together an exceptional product.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqz7RSw5030

> He introduces a cuisine of naturality, which revolves around three elements: fish, cereals and vegetables.

More cereals, vegetables, fruits, less fat, sugar, salt and animal proteins sounds great. Not sure about fish. I encourage everyone to watch Mission Blue (it's on netflix), a documentary about what overfishing is doing. Oceanographer Sylvia Earle who's perhaps the most knowledgeable person about large water bodies suggests we pretty much cut it out.

[1]: http://ideas.ted.com/2014/08/20/should-you-stop-eating-fish-...

Did you watch the video? The fish is sustainably caught (only straight nets, single line).

Sustainable resource harvest is a good thing, but isn't truly sustainable if the same resource is being harvested unsustainably by others.

Fishing regulations are quite strong in France and are getting stronger and stronger. Public opinion is really sensitive to the topic ( as well as food quality in general - to eat local, organic, etc...). Also most of the fishes served in three stars restaurant are the ones that are less subject to mass fishing ( for multiple reasons, differentiation being an important one – that's why you will never see any salmon in a three star restaurant in France )

> any salmon in a three star restaurant in France )

What about salmon farmed in private fisheries?

i eat sardines a couple times a week. they and other low-food-chain fish are apparently overpopulating the oceans right now due to overfishing of predators, which is having bad knock-on effects on zooplankton.

How do you eat them? With pasta, bagels, crackers? I don't even know what sauce to put on them.

Not much, lay them on a couple pieces of wasa bread drizzled in yellow mustard, makes a good quick breakfast.

21 stars?

The only available ratings are 0, 1, 2, and 3.

Presumably they mean he has been awarded 3-star standard by Michelin and has 6 other times in the past (or some other combination adding to 18 prior stars). Of course one could equally mean he's been a 1-star chef for 21 years which wouldn't be quite so impressive I feel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide#Stars

It's about how many restaurants a chef "owns". I do find it odd as well (how about the head chefs for each restaurant, do they also get Michelin stars?), but this is how it works.

The restaurant itself gets the star rating. The executive chef will gain a lot of attention at a michelin rated restaurant, this is true for all staff. Also you have to keep in mind that executive chefs at michelin rated restaurants do not make as much money as you expect. Most of the ones in the Bay Area are sub $100k.

Thank you for the clarification. That makes sense

Figured I would also add that its a big deal for everyone who works there because it is as much about food as it is service. The service between a 1-star rated restaurant and most other unrated restaurants is night and day.

He owns several restaurants that have been awarded Michelin stars.

Neither. He currently holds 21 stars. He has a few restaurants that hold 3-star rating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Ducasse

Ah, so theoretically you can be a 300 star Michelin chef and never have cooked anything so long as you're rich enough to buy some restaurants.

Weird, I always thought, the way it's presented on British TV shows, that the Chef de Cuisine was rated but it makes more sense to rate the restaurant as an ensemble. I suppose then though he doesn’t hold the stars the restaurants do; and he can't really be head chef at each if he's not there most of the week.

Interesting though, thank you for the correction (and to the sibling commenters too, thanks).

I just finished watching the documentary "3 Stars" which describes the process behind getting Michelin stars. It's really interesting to see how this works.

One of the older Michelin chefs said he was retiring now because chefs are becoming scientists. He said that cooking is now called molecular cuisine.

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