TOP 5 RESTAURANTS

Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris is the name of one of star chef Alain Ducasse’s restaurants. French-born Ducasse (born 13 September 1956) holds Monaco citizenship. He runs several restaurants, three among which have three stars – the maximum rank – in the 2010 Michelin Guide.

In 1972, when Ducasse was sixteen, he became an apprentice at the Pavillon Landais restaurant in Soustons and then at the hotel school in Bordeaux. He followed up by working at Michel Guérard’s restaurant in Eugénie-les-Bains while spending the summer months working for Gaston Lenôtre. In 1977 Ducasse began studying the Provençal cooking methods for which he was to become so well-known, as an assistant at Moulin de Mougins under famed chef Roger Vergé, creator of the cuisine du soleil, or cooking of the sun.

Ducasse received his first position as chef in 1980 when Vergé offered him the job at Vergé’s L’Amandier in Mougin. He became head chef at La Terrasse in the Hôtel Juana in Juan-les-Pins one year later and was awarded two Michelin stars in 1984. Later that year, Ducasse was near-fatally injured in a plane crash that left him the only survivor.

The Fat Duck is a restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, England, that is run by well-known chef Heston Blumenthal. It opened in 1995 and is one of only four in Ireland and the United Kingdom that have been rated three Michelin stars; the Fat Duck has held this distinction since 2004.

The restaurant applies techniques of molecular gastronomy and is acclaimed for the extraordinary dishes that result: “snail porridge,” “sardine on toast sorbet,” “bacon-and-egg ice cream,” and “salmon poached in licorice.”

Pierre Gagnaire (born 9 April 1950 in Apinac, Loire) a renowned French chef, is the head chef and owner of the eponymous Pierre Gagnaire restaurant in Paris. His career began in St. Etienne, where he was awarded three Michelin Stars. The startling contrasts between ingredients, tastes, and textures which his cuisine displays overturned hallowed traditions in classic French cooking.

The Pierre Gagnaire restaurant has received three Michelin stars for its dedication to “modern” French cuisine.

Per Se is a restaurant situated on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, in New York City, and owned by American chef Thomas Keller. It opened in February 2004, and has a bar, salon, and wine cellar.

Per Se is one of only seven restaurants in the USA that had three Michelin stars as of February 2010. The others are Keller’s restaurant The French Laundry in Yountville, California; Joël Robuchon’s namesake restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada; and Daniel, Jean-Georges, Le Bernardin, and Masa in New York City.