Ducasse, Alain

1956 – He was born on the 13th day of September this year in Castel-Sarrazin in southwestern France.

1972 – When he was sixteen, he began an apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and at the Bordeaux hotel school.

1977 – He started working as an assistant at Moulin de Mougins and learned the Provençal cooking methods for which he was later known.

1980 – His first position as chef came in this year when he took over the kitchens at L’Amandier in Eugène Mougin.

1984 – He was awarded two stars in the Michelin Red Guide. In that same year, Ducasse was the only survivor of a Lear jet crash that nearly took his life.

1987 – He was offered the Chef des Cuisines position at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, with management including the hotel's high end Le Louis XV restaurant.

1995 – He expanded beyond the restaurant industry and opened La Bastide de Moustiers, a twelve-bedroom country inn in Provence and he began attaining financial interests in other Provence hotels.

1996 – His restaurant opened in Le Parc – Sofitel Demeure Hôtels in the 16th district of Paris, France. The Red Guide awarded the restaurant three stars just eight months after opening.

2000 – He came to the United States and in June this year he opened the Alain Ducasse restaurant in New York City's Jumeirah Essex House hotel, receiving the Red Guide's three stars in December 2001.

2005 – He opened his first Asian restaurant in Tokyo, Japan.

2007 - He took the position as chef of the Jules Verne Restaurant located in the Eiffel Tower in Paris.