It is not often you meet someone who has voluntarily given up on having three Michelin stars. Even in this, like in so much else, Alain Senderens was a precursor and pioneer. He “handed in” his three stars in 2005, after having them for 28 years.
We met over lunch in his restaurant, “Alain Senderens”, in Paris in December 2011, two years before he sold the restaurant. The publication of this interview now is a tribute to the memory of one of the greatest men of French and world gastronomy. Alain Senderens was on born 2 December 1939 and died on 25 June 2017.
So how did it all begin? “It was a natural choice for me”, explains Senderens, although his family was not a restaurant family.
“My grandmother cooked a lot at home. When I came home from boarding school I was in the kitchen and cooked with her. We had a big library with cook books. When I had finished school I started as an apprentice in the kitchen in the Hotel Ambassadeurs in Lourdes.”
“After Ambassadeurs I started to work at the la Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris, as junior commis. It was terribly hard work but it was a good place. Then I went to work at the Lucas Carton restaurant. I became chef saucier. Sometimes I also worked as stand-in chef since the owner was not always there. After Lucas Carton I went to Hilton. I was sous-chef and earned good money.”
In 1968 Alain Senderens opened his first own restaurant, L’Archestrate. “At that time restaurants worked differently, you did not have the right to create new dishes. It was all according to Escoffier. You were supposed to reproduce what Escoffier had done but I did not want work like that.”
Handing in the three Michelin stars
Alain Senderens run L’Archestrate for almost twenty years earning three Michelin stars in 1978. He kept them for 28 years, until 2005. In 1985 he leaves Archestrate to take over Lucas Carton, his old employer. In 2005 he makes takes a dramatic decision and “hands in” his three Michelin stars. He peels off much of the luxury layers that were (and are) obligatory in a three star restaurant.
Why did he do it?
“Ah, it is the best thing I ever did! Three stars are very nice. I fought all my life to have them and I kept them for 28 years. But, one day, I walk out from the kitchen to la caisse and I suddenly look at what we do in a different way. We had truffles, game, famous wines… The average bill was 400 euro (USD 450), in 2005! I thought ‘this is crazy; nothing is worth so much money!’ We had silverware, crystal… Things break, you have to replace it. More than half of the costs were things that did not go into what was on the plate. I said to myself ‘this is impossible; I will make things less elaborate and luxurious, but I will keep the quality of what is on the plate’.”
The democratization of haut cuisine.
Inspirations
Alain Senderens’ most important sources of inspiration are not any persons, he says, but simply the tastes and flavours of the wines and the food. There is one exception: Jacques Puisais, a French oenologist, wine writer and taste philosopher.
“Jacques Puisais became in a way my philosophical father when it comes to wine and food matching. After meeting at a dinner Jacques and I started to work together to find the best food and wine matches.”
Another big marker on his career was his early employment at Lucas Carton.
“I think it was at Lucas Carton that I learned la rigeur, discipline and attention to detail. It was perhaps easier for me to learn than for some others. I think I had it in me. You know, there are only two ways to work: the good way and the bad way. And the good way does not take any more time than the bad way. Let me give you an example, just a small thing but something that marked me.”
“You know le pass, where you pass the plates from the kitchen to la salle; at Lucas Carton they put a clean table cloth there. If at the end of service it was dirty, with stains on it, we were all punished. So the same table cloth could be used for a week. We were all very careful, looking after each detail, cleaning even the underside of the plates.”
Food and wine pairing pioneer
Senderens was also a pioneer in matching food and wine. Already in 1985 he created a menu with specific wine pairing suggestions to each dish, each served by the glass.
“Matching food and wine is a bit my speciality“ says Alain Senderens. “The food and the wine are a bit like a man and a woman. They are either quarrelling or they are happy together. Sometimes it is like they are walking along a river, a romantic promenade, but that’s all. They never make love. What I try and achieve with my food is the perfect match between food and wine, not just the pleasant walk along the river.”
“I look for harmony, just like in a painting. In a painting, the main colour is of no interest in itself. It is the complimentary colours that make the painting vibrate, together with the main colour.”
“A food and wine match is not only a question of aromas. It is also very much the texture or the structure of the wine and the food. The good matches are very tactile, in the mouth.”
From an interview made in December 2011 with one of the greatest chefs in history.
Alain Senderens sold his eponymous restaurant on the Place de la Madeleine in Paris in 2013. It is still active, now under its old name Lucas Carton.
You can find a much longer version of this interview with Alain Senderens here.
–Per Karlsson
