April 27 (Bloomberg) -- French chef Alain Ducasse likes Mediterranean gold fish, Martin Heierling's Sensi eatery in Las Vegas and Michelin stars, of which his restaurants have 12. Molecular cuisine doesn't make the list.

Ducasse turns 51 in September, the age at which his rival Joel Robuchon threw in his toque in 1996, citing fatigue, allowing Ducasse to take over his eponymous three-Michelin star restaurant in Paris. Robuchon returned seven years later to build a chain of casual eateries worldwide.

Comparisons between the two are inevitable. Both rose from humble families -- Ducasse grew up on a farm, Robuchon was too poor to finish seminary school -- to the extravagant world of pressed linen napkins and $50 salads. Their eateries face off in Paris, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Monaco. Hong Kong joined the list in November, when Robuchon opened his L'Atelier a 10-minute train ride away from Ducasse's four-year-old Spoon.

Retirement, though, is far from Ducasse's thoughts. When strength flags and skills stagnate, it's time to go, he said. ``Maybe in one year, maybe in 50.'' For now, life is a whirl of openings and on-site supervision -- a tasting here, a handshake there. He plans to add an outlet at New York's St. Regis Hotel this year and another at the Dorchester in London in September.

Ducasse spoke with me in French at a booth seat in Spoon Hong Kong through the outlet's Executive Chef Tjaco van Eijken, 37, who doubled as interpreter. The lunch crowd hadn't arrived and the late-morning sun streamed through the ceiling-to-floor windows. The air-con was low, yet Ducasse, in a cream woolen blazer, seemed oblivious to the room's slow simmer.

Robuchon

Lim: How do you see your rivalry with Joel Robuchon?

Ducasse: We get along very well, but we are completely different. Robuchon is an excellent technician. His cuisine looks simple but it's very sophisticated. The technical skills of all top chefs are very high but at the end of the line everything is different because of different flavors, and the chefs' different personalities.

Lim: You both run restaurants with Michelin's top rating. How important are the stars?

Ducasse: I can live without the stars but it's better with. From the media point of view, they talk about you, they write about you. Therefore it's important to have them. I don't think the rating system places too much pressure on chefs. I prefer to put the pressure on my chefs to perform to the top standards. I agree with Michelin when I get three stars; I disagree with them when I have only two.

Fallen Star

Lim: When your Louis XV restaurant in Monte Carlo lost one of its three Michelin stars in 2001, you told the New York Times: ``Let's wait and see.''

Ducasse: And I won it back. We say what we do, we do what we say, unlike politicians. It's good to go into politics because we don't have to do what we say. We can lie. But in cooking, we are into truth. We say we will, we will.

Lim: How much creativity does a global restaurant chain generate in the cooking? If a chef in Hong Kong comes up with a great Chinese-inspired dish, does it make it to the menu?

Ducasse: He is here, (pointing to Spoon Hong Kong Executive Chef Tjaco van Eijken), he knows the guests, he knows the market so he can adapt things to suit local tastes. The foie gras with ginger glaze, and the tuna with satay sauce, both were invented here. The restaurant has taken its own identity because of the culinary evolution that's occurred. Spoon Hong Kong is more French than Spoon in Paris. But it's contemporary French, available to everybody.

Lim: What is your favorite dish?

Ducasse: My favorite ingredient is rouget de roche de Mediterranee, a type of Mediterranean gold fish (a species of red mullet), bought with their guts and scales intact from the local fishermen, then cooked in olive oil. It's an essential taste of the Mediterranean.

Salad and Grains

Lim: When you're at home, what do you eat?

Ducasse: Salad. That and grains. I am overfed, so when I am at home, I stop eating.

Lim: Wine?

Ducasse: Water.

Lim: Who is the next Alain Ducasse?

Ducasse: I'm surprised by the talent I find all over. There are always new chefs who propose many interesting new ideas, new ways of looking at ingredients. There's a chef called Martin Heierling, who runs the Sensi restaurant in Las Vegas. It's a very sexy restaurant, like a show in itself. He understands what he needs to do in that city.

Lim: What do you think of molecular cuisine (the type of cooking popularized by Spanish Chef Ferran Adria)?

Ducasse: I prefer to be able to identify what I'm eating. I have to know. It's ``wow'' effect food, virtual food. If we were surrounded by these restaurants, we would be in trouble. I would probably be retired by then.

(Le-Min Lim writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Le-Min Lim in Hong Kong at lmlim@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 26, 2007 12:07 EDT