Inside the team behind three-starred Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester

ulinary legend Alain Ducasse recently celebrated 18 years of his flagship London restaurant at The Dorchester hotel in Mayfair.

The France-born chef has one of the most glittering restaurant empires, currently holding 21 Michelin stars, including three-star venues in Paris and Monaco, as well as fine dining in London at Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.

The Legacy of Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester

For the past 15 years, the London venue has held the top honour from Michelin.

Jean-Philippe Blondet now operates as chef patron, having previously worked under Jocelyn Herland.

Marion Pépin provides guests with a memorable evening from start to finish as restaurant director, a role she has held for the past two years.

We spent some time with both Jean-Philippe and Marion to get an insight into how the excellence has remained for so long at Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester.

“What does it mean to be a chef of a big restaurant like that, three Michelin stars for now 10 years under this position? It means a lot,” said Jean-Philippe.

“It means a lot because you have Alain Ducasse plus The Dorchester, so it’s like I've got two bosses on the top of me and you have of course to run the service every day trying to be at the top performance.

“When you are three Michelin star, we just need to be consistent as much as we can. So I feel very proud to arrive at this level.

“What is the most important is to be surrounded by the right people. So I'm very lucky to have some nice key team members around me.

“(Head chef) Alberto (Gobbo) has been with me since I arrived, he was already here. So he gave me a big, big support to lead all the team, plus Marion with all the front of house.”

Marion added: “I think I have a very good relationship with Jean-Philippe. It's all about trust and communication.

“We understand each other, we have the same goal. I believe I am his eyes on the floor. So it's very important for me to report everything to Jean-Philippe.

“I think that created the trust between each other.

“Our goal within the team back and front is we need to have this connection between each other, this trust and making sure that everyone is feeling great and is having a great day.

“We are a family. We spend most of our time together, so the connection between each other is very important.

“I think we all know each other very well, so we know when one of us is not feeling well.

“The 18-year anniversary of Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, we are all very proud of that, front and back of house.”

Jean-Philippe concurred, saying: “The front of house is, I believe, the most important thing for me as a chef patron in the restaurant. You can be very good and do whatever you want behind the wall. But if you don't have the right people embrace your philosophy and are not able to deliver the right message to the guests, it is just pointless.

“So there is a lot of training going on. I am spending maybe half of my time with the front of house team to do training to understand where it is coming from. They're coming as well into the kitchen to see, to try all the dishes. They need to understand which feeling they will have when they will eat it.

“So front of house, back of house is one. You can speak about salary, about tips, everything, everybody is treated the same. Everybody is on the same level. They all want the top level for the customers. The front of house are passionate, the same way how the chefs are passionate.”

Ducasse DNA with a twist

Marion first bumped into legendary chef Alain Ducasse in a chance meeting at a train station in Paris 18 years ago, where she “begged for a picture with him”. By that time, Jean-Philippe already had a working relationship with Alain.

“We have had 20 years working together, so he is a bit like my dad of the cuisine,” Jean-Philippe explained.

“He taught me everything. So let's say that all his philosophy is now mine.

“Of course, I've got my own personality inside, which is very important. That's why I can stay (here) so long because, of course, I've got the DNA of Mr Ducasse, which is like the seasonality, cooking the right product, be careful with seasoning, all these kind of things that we learnt during these last two decades. But as well, I've got my personality that I can put myself in the plate, which is very good.

“When he's coming, I'm very lucky to have him because he's traveling like 300 days a year. So what is very important for me is for him to tell me ‘I saw that in Tokyo’, ‘I just came back from New York, I saw that’, ‘I was there in Japan in that small restaurant, just to get inspired’ and just try to give the mainline conductor, for me to get inspired by what he's saying.

“So to pick out one thing he has taught me, it is to just be focused about one thing. Don't do too much. It's very important to be very transparent in the plate and just have the clear point of the vision the guests should receive.”

The Synergy Between Kitchen and Dining Room

Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester have made a big focus on improving guest experience, from the moment they walk through the door, particularly by elevating the canapés and snacks to start the meal right.

“I think attention to detail is what makes the difference,” said Marion.

“Why it is three Michelin stars is all about details and maybe sometimes the guest won't actually notice all the details, but maybe one will notice one detail and another guest will notice a different detail and you understand that you did well.”

A big boost in uk ingredients

Discussing how the food offering has changed during his 12 years at the restaurant, initially as executive sous chef to Jocelyn, Jean-Philippe said: “The food evolved quite a lot. When I arrived, 50 percent of the ingredients were coming from outside the UK. A lot of things from France, from Spain, Italy, all over the world. And now I'm very proud to say that we managed to have more than 90 percent of the ingredients coming from the UK.

“There is a big partnership with all the small growers that we have, especially one in Cornwall, who are growing what we want.

“The approach and what we can find within the UK, now I will say you are very, very good. It's much easier for us to follow the seasons.”

He added: “The main step is everything coming through the door of the restaurant needs to be under control and perfect. I believe that maybe we have the only restaurant within London where I've got a sous chef coming every morning to do the delivery.

“It’s not like someone coming from outside the team. He's my sous chef. They know what I want and nothing bad will come. They're here to block it.

“So when we are going to do a new menu, what we want is first a connection with our grower. What will be ready in three weeks’ time? It's not about chemicals here, it’s just mother nature, coming when it's coming. And we need to adapt ourselves.

“If something is better from France, for example, the tomatoes for me in the UK, they are good just when France is finishing, around September. So sometimes we start from a beautiful product from France and after we're finishing all time with UK.

“We try to have this same philosophy for the fish. The fish we can find everything here, it is a bit pointless to go to France. The quality is better here.”

Asked how he balances the Alain Ducasse traditions with being innovative, Jean-Philippe said: “The DNA, the classic dishes from Ducasse are here. And I think they are the roots of the restaurants.

“After what we want to bring here is all the time to try to have a bit of twist.”

The future for Jean-Philippe Blondet

So, what’s next?

“The next step for me naturally will be to try to open my own group of restaurants,” said Jean-Philippe.

“Maybe one fine dining, but a lot of small different concepts within UK or France maybe as well.

“This is the goal, to try to make fine dining accessible to everybody, in a simple way.

“This is what will maybe be my future in a few years.

“For now, I'm doing good because I've got the key of the restaurant and the trust of Mr Ducasse. There are a lot of things we have done and are still doing with Marion.

“The goal is to try to provide as much as possible a full experience to our guests.”