Continuing our gluttonous exploration of France's top chefs, this week we learn about Alain Ducasse, the Monégasque chef considered one of the leading exponents of French cuisine. He operates a number of restaurants, including Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester Hotel in London, which holds three stars in the Michelin Guide. His formative years were spent in restaurants along the French Riviera, where he learned the Provençal cooking methods he'd later become renowned for.

Born on a farm in Castel-Sarrazin in southwestern France - and thus formerly a French national - Ducasse was 16 when he began his apprenticeship at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and at the Bordeaux Hotel School. Following these formative years, he began working at Michel Guérard's restaurant in Eugénie-les-Bains, while working for Gaston Lenôtre - the renowned pasty chef - during the summer months.

In 1977, Ducasse began working as an assistant at Moulin de Mougins, a celebrated restaurant situated in a 16th century mill (Moulin) in the inland French Riviera village of Mougins. Under the tutorship of legendary chef Roger Verge, Ducasses sharpened his Provençal cooking skills. His first position as chef came in 1980 when he took over the kitchens at L'amandier in Mougin. A year later he assumed the position of head chef at La Terrasse in the Hôtel Juana in Juan-les-Pins. In 1984, he was awarded two stars in the Michelin Red Guide. This was also the year he nearly lost his life in a Lear jet crash. He was the only survivor.

Three years later Ducasse was offered the position of chef at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, managing all the  restaurant in the hotel, including Le Louis XV. In 1988, he expanded beyond the restaurant industry and opened La Bastide de Moustiers, a 12-bedroom country inn in Provence. He also began to attain financial interests in other Provence-based hotels. With another restaurant opening in Paris in 1996 - Le Parc at the Sofitel Demeure Hotel in the XVIe arrondissement - he was awarded three stars from Michelin's Red Guide.

At the start of the new millennium, Ducasse expanded his brand again, opening restaurants in New York City, Washington, DC and London. He also became the first chef to own restaurants carrying three Michelin stars in three cities simultaneously. The Alain Ducasse Group of restaurants, inns, cooking schools, cookbooks and consulting activities had revenues of $15.9 million in 2002 and employs approximately 1,400 people. He even works for the European Space Agency, developing astronaut meals to be taken into space.

Ducasse's rivalry with fellow French chef Joel Robuchon is the stuff of legends. But despite the constant rumours, the two masters have a restaurant together in Paris, called Le Relais du Parc (above). He told the New York Times: "The media loves it. We were partners together in another restaurant before we did Le Relais de Parc together. There's a big respect between us and we have an excellent relationship. We had a meal together in Las Vegas last week. Why should we not be friends when we have restaurants all over the world?"

So what's next for this culinary mastermind? Ducasse's first Caribbean outpost will open in November 2010. The W Retreat & Spa on the Vieques Island off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico will offer a menu that explores colourful Latino-Caribbean flavours with a French twist. For a chef whose cooking has always been rooted in the coastal flavours of the Mediterranean - from the Basque country to the French Riviera to Italy - the possibilities are limitless.

Here are just a selection from Ducasse's 30+ Restaurants

59 Poincaré - Paris
Adour - New York, Washington, DC
Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester - London
Aux Lyonnais - Paris
Bar & Boeuf - Monaco
Benoit - Paris, Tokyo, New York
La Cour Jardin - Paris
Mix in Las Vegas - Las Vegas
Le Relais du Parc - Paris
Tamaris - Beirut
Spoon - Paris, Saint-Tropez, Beirut, Carthago, Gstaadt, Mauritius - Hong Kong
Trattoria Toscana - Castiglione della Pescaia

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