Alain Ducasse

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. ”

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. ”