The most renowned restaurateur in the world, French Alain Ducasse, who has earned 21 Michelin stars, is now targeting specialty coffee and has opened cafeterias under his signature in Paris, London, Japan and the USA

In June, Veda Viraswami, twice French roasting champion and responsible for roasting the coffees served in restaurants and in Le Cafe Alain Ducasse is coming to Brazil to know a little bit more about our special grains

Brand Alain Ducasse  is not just a reference in haute cuisine worldwide, but it is a personification of supreme quality in every aspect. A proof of that is that this French chef earned his first Michelin star at the age of 33 at a restaurant less than three years old, when he was heading Le Louis XV, at Hôtel de Paris, in Monaco, in 1990. The same restaurant that, years ago was sullied by the presence of corrupt Brazilian politicians (a pleonasm?), pictured with napkins on their heads and later on put in jail by the “Car Wash Operation.”

Today, at more than 60 years of age, he has already collected 21 stars, owns more than 30 premises spread around Europe, Asia and North America, and employs more than two thousand highly qualified collaborators.

But our story is not about his highly starred restaurants, but indeed about his newest passion: the most rare specialty coffees in the world, presented by the greatest chef in the Planet under his signature, Le Cafe Alain Ducasse. Launched last year with great pomp, and it couldn’t absolutely be otherwise, when he opened the doors of his first spot in Paris, Ducasse explained that the network’s mission would be haute cuisine applied to coffees. “The service is a unique experience, where baristas have been renamed cafeliers/cafelierès, professionals with a deep knowledge on coffee preparation, market languages and the art of serving, while borrowing gestures from the cuisine area”, according to the very chef.

Le Cafe Alain Ducasse’s Managing Director, Olivier Fellous, told us they plan to open 10 new outlets until December 2020. “Probably, we’ll open a spot in the USA, in Japan and in the Mid East”, he said. When asked if they had plans for Brazil, he just said they are waiting for an offer from an investment group.

Interest in the specialty coffee market has ben growing around the world and in Brazil, the largest producer in the world. But actually initiatives by Brazilian chefs to invest on a quality albeit expensive gastronomic experience, by offering sophisticated Brazilian specialty coffees have been meager up to now. Since here very little is created, and almost everything is copied…

And, to know a little bit more about Le Cafe Alain Ducasse we had an exclusive interview with Veda Viraswami, French roasting champion in 2017 and 2018 and hold of a third position prize in the 2018 world champion, and responsible for all the matters related to specialty coffees in Alain Ducasse’s company. Veda will come to Brazil in June, to take part in Roasting Camp, promoted by Capricórnio Coffees, together with the roasting champions from Russia and Japan, Vladimir Nenashev and Yoshiyuki Nakamura, respectively, to exchange experiences with Brazilian roasters and know a little bit more about our specialty coffee scene.

Veda Viraswami

Grão Especial – How did you start to work with specialty coffees?

Veda Viraswami – I came from Mauritius Islands (a former Dutch colony, then French, and currently an independent State, located in Indic Ocean) to France to study engineering. Before finishing my studies, I was already involved with coffee roasting and at that time, 15 years ago, nobody knew what a specialty coffee was. I got interested in roasting because I wanted to understand all the science behind the process and how the laws of Physics and Chemistry could alter that work.
At the start, I opened a small company in Strasbourg, in Eastern France. I only roasted small quantities of quality coffees, but they were not special. Then, information started to come out about specialty coffees and since then I have never stopped researching, visiting farms around the world, etc. After that, a company called Les Cafes Sati hired me, which also has a plant in Poland. I worked there for five years, dividing my time with roasting courses, and at that time I was using the SCA methodology.

Grão Especial – And how did you end up working with Alain Ducasse?

Veda Viraswani – Last year, in April/May, a collaborator of Alain Ducasse visited me because he wanted to meet me and ask me to give training to a member of their team, since they had already established the entire business plan for the Alain Ducasse Cafés. We made an appointment, he came to my office, trained all day long, and, in the end, said that I was the person they wanted to hire. After a few days, I had a meeting with Alain Ducasse himself.

Grão Especial – With the myth himself?

Veda Viraswani – Yes, and he already knew absolutely everything about me. 10 minutes later, he asked me to sign the contract. And I was startled, and wanted to discuss some important details. We talked for a while and we reached an agreement.

Grão Especial – And what exactly is your role at Café Alain Ducasse?

Veda Viraswami – I am the one who puts Alain Ducasse’s vision on specialty coffees into practice. It’s simple, but that’s it. And offer the maximum gastronomic experience in a cup of coffee. I’m responsible for everything involving classification, roasting, and recipes, everything has to get my approval before being submitted to Alain Ducasse’s appreciation.

Grão Especial – In addition to cafeterias, you roasting the coffees served in Ducasse’s restaurant network?

Veda Viraswami – Right now, I am roasting coffee for a few restaurants, for both cafés in Paris and London, which was opened more recently. And I will also roast coffee for the third outlet, which will also be opened in Paris, in June. Since the group’s philosophy is to preserve at any cost maximum quality of what is served to his clients, I am not able right now to roast coffee to all AD outlets. Our growth will be gradual and consistent. But certainly, that will happen in the near future.

Grão Especial – How are coffees selected?

Veda Viraswami – In addition to roasting, I am also responsible for coffee hunting. So, for a coffee to be served by us, it must really be a unique and exquisite experience.

Grão Especial – Do you serve Brazilian coffees at the Cafeteria?

Veda Viraswami – I enjoy very much to work with Brazilian coffees for our espresso blends, and we currently use a blend with grains from Cerrado region of the State of Minas Gerais, but I can’t remember the farm’s name. But, unfortunately, up to now, we have not worked with any single origin from Brazil. None of the coffees I have tried, some yellow and red Bourbons, has satisfied me to the point of introducing them to Alain Ducasse, who always gives the final word about everything.

Grão Especial – So your visit to Brazil in June may bring some very positive surprises…

Veda Viraswami – I hope so. I am personally very interested in knowing much more about the Brazilian specialty coffee scene. I would really like to be able to work with single origin grains from a Brazilian farm, and roast them in a special way. But to do that, I want to know the entire process at first hand. I need to check in loco everything that has been done before grain gets to our client’s cup, so I can do my job. My purpose is to commend every little detail of what has been done on field, so that the more subtle features can really be perceived. It is not always easy. Our philosophy is to work with precision, transparency and to explain to people that what we do here is completely different.

In addition to that, it will be a great opportunity to share experiences, techniques and work philosophies with the other roasting professionals attending the Roasting Camp.

Grão Especial – Do you only roast coffee?

Veda Viraswami – Nuts too. Alain Ducasse also has a chocolate plant and we have been using creole cocoa from Brazil to make very sophisticated chocolate. Recently, Alex Atala visited me and we talked a lot about macadamias. They suffer the same chemical effects during roasting, but at very different temperatures. Soon, we’ll announce some great news.

Grão Especial – Right now, which coffees are you serving at the cafeterias?

Veda Viraswami – We have magnificent coffees such as Gesha from Panama, Costa Rica, and Yemen. We serve this latter using the filtration method. It is an exceptional coffee, very rare, fine, and delicate, and for which I have tried to translate all the nuances in a roasting process full of passion.

Grão Especial – And as far as I know, it is also very expensive.

Veda Viraswami – Yes, because it is rare, it’s an expensive coffee. One cup of blended espresso coffee at the Alain Ducasse cafeterias costs 2.5 euros in average. The one from Yemen, it’s worth 15 euros.

Grão Especial – Will the Alain Ducasse coffees be available at supermarkets?

Veda Viraswami – Absolutely not. Never. Only in our cafeterias and in some restaurants owned by Alain Ducasse. We want people to come to our cafeterias to have an experience, in the same manner as they choose one of our restaurants to have dinner. We are far above any standard!

Le Café Alain Ducasse 

Addresses

Manufacturing
12, rue Saint Sabin (Chemin Subway Station)
75011 – Paris

Store
47 rue du Cherche Midi, 75006

London – Coal Drops Yard
16, Bagley Walk Arches, London N1C 4DH

Photos by Pierre Moneta