Wearing a linen shirt, brown pants, and leather sandals, French chef Alain Passard excitedly faced his audience, composed mostly of students, during a special cooking demo at Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute in Quezon City. This happened in late 2022 when the renowned chef visited the Philippines for the anniversary of France-Philippines diplomatic relations. And aside from cooking a special dinner for the celebrations, he was able to meet and talk to some Filipino culinary students.During the demo, he prepared his signature cuisine and also answered a few questions from the young aspiring chefs. He talked with much passion like how he runs his kitchen at L’Arpège, a three-Michelin Star restaurant in Paris, France.
“Cuisine is not only a recipe, but what you feel inside. Even if you're not cooking, you need to have passion,” he answered one query from a student as translated by Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo de Manila Institute technical director chef Thierry Le Baut.
Students intently listened to every word he said and took down notes as he explained the steps in creating his dish. He deserved all the attention he got during that demo because for these students, and everyone in the culinary world, he is considered a rock star.
Chef Alain received his first Michelin star in 1980 at the age of 26. He opened L’Arpège, his own restaurant, in 1986 and it received its first Michelin star the following year. The restaurant then received its second star in 1988 and then its third in 1996. The restaurant has since maintained the three-Michelin star rating, making it one of the best restaurants in the world. To put it simply, he is one of the best chefs in the world.
His passion for food and arts started at a young age. He grew up in a family of artists, his father was a musician and his grandfather was a sculptor. His mother, on the other hand, was a tailor and his grandmother, he says, was an exceptional cook.
This artistic household shaped who he is today. Aside from kitchen knives, he also plays the saxophone with his skilled hands.
“I like elegance, delicacy, precision, all the details that I could see, with all the artists around me. In music, there’s precision. Since I was young, from my mother to my brother, all were making art. My family taught me elegance,” he said during the short interview with the media after his demo with the students.
“Cuisine is not only a recipe, but what you feel inside. Even if you're not cooking, you need to have passion.”
His passion for food and arts go hand in hand. It can be seen on the plates being served at his famous restaurant. Perfectly sliced fruits and vegetables methodically and artfully placed on a pristine white plate.
“Art is everywhere, someone making a piece of art from wood, etc. I was around art—everywhere—that made me a chef,” the 66-year-old chef said.
Chef Alain started his journey in the culinary industry at Liffré a commune in Brittany in northwestern France, at the Le Lion d'Or restaurant of Michelin-starred chef Michel Kéréver. This is where he learned the fundamentals of French cuisine. He worked here until 1975 when he then joined the kitchen of another Michelin-starred chef, Gaston Boyer at La Chaumière.
It was in the early 1980s when chef Alain received his first Michelin stars. Two stars for Le Duc d'Enghien at the Enghien Casino in 1980 and then another two stars for Carlton of Brussels in 1984. Two years later, he founded L’Arpège.
From the day L’Arpège opened until the year 2000, the restaurant was known as one of the leading rôtisseries in Paris, specializing in slow-cooked meat. The restaurant describes chef Alain as a “world-class rôtisseur, who, for years, has followed what his grandmother passed down to him: a passion for flames and slow-cooking meat at low temperatures.”
However, it was in the early 2000s when the renowned chef had an “awakening” and “experienced a great rift in his creativity,” according to L’Arpège’s website. During this time, he shifted his focus from meat to vegetables and fruits. He wanted to make vegetables and fruits as the stars of the plate.
During the demo at Le Cordon Bleu Ateneo, chef Alain shared one of his vegetarian dishes, a garden-like plate composed of fresh produce—radish, carrot, zucchini, tomato, cauliflower, asparagus, French beans, dill, and rosemary served with a honey and lemon dressing.
For the chef, creating a dish like this doesn’t take a lot of techniques because his philosophy is, the less cooking technique one uses, the better the dish will be. His purpose is to make the ingredients shine and serve them as natural as possible.
“I like elegance, delicacy, precision, all the details that I could see, with all the artists around me. In music, there’s precision. Since I was young, from my mother to my brother, all were making art. My family taught me elegance.”
“The purpose here is to make the vegetables [to look] how they look in nature, how they look in the garden. This is why we do as little technique as we can and that is why chef Passard insists on the quality of the vegetables,” his assistant explained while they were preparing the dish.
At L’Arpège, chef Alain highlights the use of fruits, vegetables, and herbs from their own gardens. He often shares this on his Instagram account—crates of freshly picked strawberries, rows and rows of different crops, numerous pots of seedlings, and the dishes he created using these fresh produce.
What’s unique about chef Alain’s cooking is he doesn’t repeat a menu and his menu is based on the seasons. He cooks whatever is available. His restaurant, however, doesn’t exclusively serve vegetarian dishes but meat as well.
“It started with vegetarian dishes 20 years ago. It’s very artistic for me. These are artistic foods, you know, you have the seasons [and] nature. We’ve done something special with the carrots, turnips. It’s something that can feed you a lot as well,” he said.
Like his creations at L’Arpège, he’s like an artist at work. Every slice of vegetable, every sprinkle of herbs, every drizzle of sauce, is done with thought and care like brushstrokes on a canvas.
“Art is a mirror of nature,” chef Alain said.
For him, even though he’s not in the kitchen or the gardens of his restaurant, he carries his work and his art with him, always.
“There's a French pianist named Michel Petrucianni who said, 'When I'm not playing I still hear music in my head.’ For me, it's the same thing, when I'm not cooking, I'm still a chef. I still think like a chef,” he shared.
For him, every chef is an artist because every creation of a chef is shaped by experience, passion, and inspiration.
“I've been [in this industry for years]. With plenty of big chefs, some are not here anymore, we have been making the cuisine, the restaurant, the hospitality industry, to make it something everybody appreciates. It's a noble job. You (referring to culinary students) are an artist,” chef Alain said.
“Art is everywhere, someone making a piece of art from wood, etc. I was around art—everywhere—that made me a chef.”