Alain Ducasse

And then he tasted again and he said, the milk, the cows that made the milk that made this butter, did they graze in the fertile part of the farm? He said, absolutely.

And Alain left, and the next day, a chef was in the kitchen and looks over, and there's an intern using a Cuisinart to make butter.

And he goes over, he says, hey, what are you doing? He goes, oh, I found a faster way to make the butter.

He says, how long have you been doing that? He goes, a couple of weeks.

So Alain Ducasse was able to taste that the butter hadn't been hand-churned.

He said, a couple of days later, I was at the farm, and I see the cows were missing.

he's asked the farmhand where the cows were he says i sent him to the south because we needed to fertilize the land he goes how long you been doing that he says a couple of months so linda cast was able to taste that the milk from the cows were not from you know the food that the cows were eating was weren't as fertile as it could have been and i thought you know that's so fascinating right i mean you can detect And anybody that has one of those tomato stuff in one of those trucks will tell you that it tastes like nothing, right? So why don't we want? Don't we want our food to taste better? No, we want it to be.

Right, right.

I always have menus on my mind, rethinking and improving them every day with a sense of precision.

Shuchuk's revolving menu, the best bet is the tasting menu, which starts at $99, is informed by his need to recharge ideas coming out of his Bibles, books by Elizabeth David, the Bon Iver of unfussy British cooking, and Alain Ducasse, the David Bowie of haute cuisine.

Their influence has inspired him to push both the serviette and the envelope.

Take, for instance, his sunflower seed risotto, which is fast becoming a house staple.

And over there I was like already like as a demi chef de parti, chef de parti type of level, you know? So I was getting paid, I was on the payroll.

And man, I was very tough, you know? I remember like I was briefly, you know, very briefly in this spoon, you know, by Alain Ducasse, you know, there.

And it was like you would come in at 7.30 in the morning, leave at 11 p.m., not even have time for lunch.

for dinner, you know, some days, you know, like, wow, like, psychologically, I was, like, pretty depleted after a while there, you know? I was just, like, not doing very well, honestly, you know? It's like, because it was just too much pressure, you know? And the treatment, like, it was just, like, people on your toes, push, push, push, push, not friendly at all.