Alain Ducasse

There are so many impassioned winemakers. I think there are more impassioned winemakers than chefs.

I don't like being a celebrity.

For me, going to markets is the best way to understand the soul of a place.

Everything that pushes up out of the earth I love. Everything under the earth, root vegetables, I love to cook.

If I am going somewhere exotic, I take an empty suitcase with me to bring back the objects I fall in love with.

I'm in love with the markets of the world. It's a photograph of a city, a culture.

I love any excuse to work with a mortar and pestle.

I have a passion for luggage - trunks and so on. I have a collection of them, but I can never resist buying another piece.

I love to pick tomatoes at the end of the day, when they're still warm from the sun.

Food is one part of the experience. And it has to be somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the dining experience. But the rest counts as well: The mood, the atmosphere, the music, the feeling, the design, the harmony between what you have on the plate and what surrounds the plate.

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.

Failure is enriching. It's also important to accept that you'll make mistakes - it's how you build your expertise. The trick is to learn a positive lesson from all of life's negative moments.