Alain Senderens & Lucas Carton – Paris, France

Alain Senderens was born December, 1939 in Southwest France, in Hyeres,Var.  He was one of the French chefs who are credited with the invention of Nouvelle Cuisine, along with the Troisgros Brothers and Paul Bocuse.  Alain took his apprenticeship in Lourdes at the Ambassador Hotel and then went to Paris at age 20, to join La Tour d’Argent where he worked as commis garde-manger and then as chef rôtisseur.  Thereafter, he joined Lucas Carton as saucier under Great Chef Soustelle.  

After two years, Alain went to Berkeley where he worked as chef poissonnier, and then had the opportunity to work as sous chef after the opening of the Hilton Orly at Paris’ Orly Field Airport.  In 1968, Chef Alain came up with his own restaurant in Paris on rue de l’exposition. The restaurant was renamed as l’Archestrate, a man who took great pleasure in experiencing the world’s best with respect to food and drink. 

In 1985, Alain Senderens took over Lucas Carton and in 2005, renamed the restaurant in his name.  It was there in 2000, that Great Chefs television taped him for both the Great Chefs of the World series and Great Chefs of France.  Also in 2005, he famously claimed to hand back his three Michelin stars after the restaurant was relaunched, saying he could not charge an affordable price for meals while keeping up the standards Michelin required.  As a result, Chef Senderens stated that the customers pay a third of the former prices, return more often, and the profits are nearly four times of what they were.

Chef Alain Senderens also trained Great Chef Alain Passard of Restaurant Arpège, who also appears in the Great Chefs television shows.