The Hospitality Industry's Rocky Road

Rech by Alain Ducasse had a great view, good food, but closed last night

Tonight I re-visited a relatively new restaurant in Causeway Bay and it was doing pretty good business. Staff were all wearing masks and hand sanitizer was at the bar for anyone wanting to give their hands a good rubdown.

This evening chefs wearing masks prepare dinner for 12 guests

At dinner the gossip tonight was about Rech by Alain Ducasse's sudden closure last night. The fine-dining contemporary French restaurant seemed to have the right formula -- a stunning view of Victoria Harbour, unpretentious decor and seafood that was fresh and light -- and managed to retain its one Michelin star for three consecutive years.

But yesterday afternoon the staff were told that in a few hours they would be working their last service for dinner, and the restaurant would close. Imagine how shocking that is -- to find out you have no job the next day.

However what happened at Rech is happening all over the city, a lot of restaurants, cafes, shops are closing because they can't financially survive anymore after eight months of protests and now the coronavirus that has morphed into a global pandemic.

People aren't being let go because of their work performance -- it's a collection of forces that are way beyond their control.

Everyone is vulnerable to cuts, including dai pai dongs

When will it all end? No one knows. It's shocking and sad to see so many people unemployed at once, affecting all sectors, but right now it's the survival of the fittest in terms of how deep pockets are...

Review: The Quest of Alain Ducasse

Ducasse in the farm that grows vegetables for Plaza-Athenee in Paris

Yesterday I happened to see that the documentary, The Quest of Alain Ducasse was showing tonight and decided I had to go see it.

The French chef with 21 Michelin stars under his belt was just in the vicinity last week with the opening of his two restaurants in Morpheus, the latest over-the-top hotel to open in Macau.

So I wanted to know what made the 61-year-old man tick -- and although the film shows scenes of the French chef tasting numerous delicious-looking dishes from Paris to London, to Kyoto and Hong Kong, we don't really know much about Ducasse himself.

There are hardly any biographical details about him, how he was born in 1956 in Orthez, in southwestern France and that it was his grandmother's cooking -- the smells that wafted up into his room -- that got him interested in the kitchen.

Ducasse revolutionized French cuisine, doing away with heavy creams and butter and opting instead for light, rustic cooking that showcases the freshness of the ingredients. He's also gone a step further in making his Parisian restaurant Plaza-Athenee feature vegetables and seafood but no meat.

It is clear he is passionate about what he does -- he insists on servers pouring Champagne in front of guests and will personally rearrange the furniture too. He only has praise for his army of chefs around the world -- there are only minor details to be worked out in their new menu items. The dishes for him are practically perfect. Or is he saying this in front of the camera?

He looks over the Hong Kong skyline at the then Spoon

What was completely glossed over in the documentary was a plane crash he survived in 1984. He and four colleagues were flying in a small plane from St Tropez to Courcheval in the French alps when the weather turned bad. They could have opted to land in Lyon, but they decided to press on when through the clouds they suddenly saw a mountain in front of them and it was too late to divert.

He was thrown out of the cockpit into the trees, the only survivor of the crash, though he lost a lot of blood. It took him months to get over the trauma but it also made him look at life succinctly.

"It helped me to realize what is important and what is not," he has said in an interview. "It taught me to step back from the kitchen, and open my eyes to the vastness of the world."

And so The Quest of Alain Ducasse is a non-stop travelogue of him flying all over the place, constantly in search of new flavours, new ingredients, encouraging his staff and checking out possible business ventures (Mongolia, anyone?). He has even started a culinary school in Manila where some street kids are taken in and trained to become cooks, sponsored by the man himself. He is moved listening to the young women thank him for giving them an opportunity to earn money for their families.

Handing certificates to cooks at his culinary school in Manila

When he visits China, he takes several of his staff to see a sturgeon farm for caviar two hours outside of Shanghai. There's a giant fish farm, rearing sturgeon that are very large. One of the most jaw-dropping scenes is watching a giant sturgeon sliced open, revealing millions of black caviar pearls.

Ducasse has been advocating Chinese caviar for years and only uses them in his restaurants. In the tasting room they use mother of pearl spoons to scoop out large dollops and everyone marvels at how sublime they taste.

There are no scenes about his private life, only to note that he has four children, three of whom are young children.

After watching the film I wasn't hungry, which was disappointing, but also how little I have accomplished next to this man who has how many restaurants around the world?

But it's his relentless passion for food, curiosity about new things that make me realize that this is what keeps him going everyday. The old adage "Do what you love" definitely applies here and Ducasse is an excellent example.

The Quest of Alain Ducasse
Directed by Gilles de Maistre
84 Minutes

French Factoids, Touring Paris and Centre Pompidou

The Eiffel Tower is one of the most visited landmarks

This morning we had a city tour given by a local guide and he gave us a lot of interesting factoids. Here's a random selection:

The population of Paris is 2.2 million.

Les Invalides where Napoleon's body is laid to rest

Notre Dame is 852 years old.

There has been no skyscrapers since 1977 after the one at Montparnasse was built in 1973 at 59 floors.

The French pay 75 percent in taxes in gasoline.

There are five weeks of paid vacation each year.

A pack of cigarettes costs 10 euros.

Napoleon crowned himself emperor

Every year France receives 83 million visitors, 15 million of which go to Euro Disney.

To rent an 800 square-foot flat it costs around 2,300 euros a month, but the average wage is 1,600 euros.

We made a quick stop at The Invalides, Napoleon's final resting place. Twelve kilograms of gold leaf was used to reguild the dome on top of the Invalides and the place was originally a home for soldiers.

Napoleon's body is placed in seven coffins, and his actual height was 5 feet 6 inches, so he wasn't that short. He was originally from Corsica, half French, half Italian. He grew up speaking Italian and didn't learn French until he was older.

He worked hard, some 15 hours a day and graduated from the Military College that was passed by. There are still some bullet holes from World War II on the façade of the college that can easily be seen.

The interesting "inside outside" design of Centre Pompidou

Another point of interest we saw was the Eiffel Tower. It was built in 1889 by Gustav Eiffel for the World's Exposition and was meant to be a temporary building to be taken down in 20 years. Many protested it, but at the last minute the structure was saved, mostly because it had military uses in sending wireless messages from the top.

It took 26 months to build the tower and it has four elevators, one in each leg. They now have double-decker elevators, each carrying 50 people at a time. The second floor of the tower is Jules Verne Restaurant, which was taken over by Alain Ducasse about a year ago. No food is actually "cooked" on the tower – it is brought up there – not even candles can be placed on a birthday cake.

Le Corbusier looked at things in terms of geometry

Eiffel was a well known civil engineer at the time and also assisted in the infrastructure of the State of Liberty that was a gift from the French to the Americans.

There's a giant gold "eternal flame" that was a gift from the Herald Tribune in 1987, but it happens to be by the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed in the tragic car accident with Dodi el Fayed. As a result the "eternal flame" has become a shrine where people still pay their respects to the late princess.

Two of Le Corbusier's chair designs that are still around today

Another must-see sight is the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon to celebrate his victories. Thirty-three generals and marshals are remembered here, including Victor Hugo's father.

The arch is where the tomb of the unknown soldier is located, and the eternal flame there has been going non-stop for 94 years – even during World War II. Every night at 6.30pm there is a ceremony to remember the war dead.

This is also the place where the Tour de France ends.

Le Corbusier's concept of man and his various measurements

Our tour ended at Place de la Concorde, where we saw the obelisk that was originally from Luxor. It took five years and a specially made boat to carry it from Egypt to France. The obelisk is now 3,300 years old.

After lunch we went to Centre Pompidou near Chatelet Les Halles metro station. It's a curious building – the various pipes are on the outside, kind of turning the building inside out, as a way to save more space inside.

This photo of him ended the exhibition!

Designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the building is not only a exhibition space but also a community one too. The pipes are colour coded – blue for air conditioning, green for water circulation, red for transporting people in elevators and escalators, and yellow for electricity.

For 3 euros we were able to go to the top of the centre and have a good overview of Paris. We could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance as well as Sacre Coeur.

Inside we took a quick look at one of the current exhibitions, Le Corbusier: Mesures de L'Homme or Measures of Man.  

It was similar to the show we saw in New York over a year ago, celebrating the architect's innovative designs that focus on minimalism and functionality. Here it was more about the human body and how it fits in relation to architecture and furniture.

The stained glass dome at Galeries Lafayette

In 1943 he began thinking about the Modulor, a system of measurement based on the size of the average man, 183cm or 226cm when his arm was raised. However it wasn't just about numbers, Le Corbusier would make line drawings of human figures that were stamped onto drafts or painted or carved on walls of buildings.

The exhibition also showcases his paintings, sculptures, furniture designs and of course architectural drawings, including one of Notre Dame du Haut Chapel in Ronchamp, and of course Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab state, commissioned by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Afterwards we made our way to Galeries Lafayette where we saw lots of mainland Chinese tourists shopping up a storm or taking a break by sitting on the floor with their bags of purchases. We focused more on appreciating the stained glass domed ceiling than the luxury merchandise on the sale.

Printemps celebrating 150 years with flowers

Across the street Printemps is celebrating its 150^th anniversary and trying to drum up business with collaborations with various brands, such as a special Printemps pink macaron from Laduree…