Alain Ducasse

In each restaurant, I develop a different culinary sensibility. In Paris, I'm more classic, because that's what customers like. In Monaco, it's classic Mediterranean haute cuisine. In London, it's a contemporary French restaurant that I've developed with a U.K. influence and my French know-how.

TV is a deformed vision, an excessive caricature. A chef has to stay an artisan, not become a star.

In Paris we have bistros, then we have fine dining. In London, you have a very contemporary scene with mixed influences.

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

I was brought up on a farm in Southwest France, eating farm-fresh produce three times a day. It was paradise on Earth, and it shaped my eating habits and my sense of taste.

I prefer to be able to identify what I'm eating. I have to know.

I am overfed, so when I am at home, I stop eating.

I would never be able to lead the insane lifestyle I do, traveling all over the world, if I wasn't eating food that was simple and healthy.

To make my meal, I go to the market and to the garden, and then I decide what I'm going to do. That's a great pleasure.

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

In France, Christmas is a family holiday. You stay home. New Year's Eve is when you go out.

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