World of CS AcademyFriday 18 September 2026
Mr. Alain Ducasse: "We hide nothing"
"It must be shared with generosity."
Opening Note
Mr. Alain Ducasse marked a significant birthday on Sunday.
He knows exactly how a kitchen should run. How a service should feel. How to open in a city he has never worked in and make it good by the second week. That knowledge is worth a fortune, and he could have kept all of it.
He built schools instead, so that people who will never work for him can learn what he knows.
When I asked him why, he answered without pausing.
Read the full piece on LinkedIn →
This Week
Mr. Alain Ducasse · Creative Director
We hide nothing.
"The thing most worth sharing in the world is know-how and expertise, and it must be shared with generosity. That is why I built the schools. We hide nothing."
He knows what he is doing. The people he trains will open their own places, hire away his best cooks, and compete with him in cities he cares about. He does it anyway, because a guest eating well somewhere else is still a guest eating well, and the whole trade gets better when good practice travels.
Think about what that costs him, and then think about your own operation. The chef who keeps one technique to himself so he cannot be replaced. The manager who holds the supplier relationships close. The supervisor who has run the same opening routine since the day he started and has never written it down. Each of them is protecting a job. Each of them is also making sure the business cannot survive their day off.
Watch the conversation →GM Secrets
"A new table. A new restaurant."
Mr. Alain Ducasse keeps one rule for himself and has kept it throughout his career. A new table. A new restaurant. Something he has not tasted and someone he has not met. That is where the inspiration comes from, and he goes looking for it rather than waiting for it to arrive.
Put it on your senior team. Each of you brings one discovery to the Monday briefing, named and specific, and the briefing opens with those rather than with the numbers. Curiosity stops being a trait people claim and becomes something they have to produce on a date. And you find out quickly which of your managers has left the building this month.
From the Conversation
When he proposed a dish of plain peasant vegetables for Monaco, Prince Rainier asked whether anyone would actually eat that. The answer decided his career.
"They will get used to it."
Mr. Alain Ducasse
Creative Director
In the Academy
Masterclass
The 90 Seconds That Matter
My ten-part masterclass on the small windows where trust is built or broken: the moment before a guest speaks, and the first ninety seconds of an arrival.
What has to already be true before those ninety seconds start. Active listening. What the body says before the words do. Consistency, and why it is the part nobody applauds. Ten rules for client trust and experience, and what each one costs to keep.
Ten video lessons, ten workbooks, a final quiz and a certificate.
Open the masterclass
