Titled ‘Chef of the Century’ by the Gault Millau guide in 1990, Joël Robuchon is legendary in the culinary world. He currently lays claim to 22 dining establishments in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, Macao, Monaco, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and now Singapore, garnering 26 Michelin-stars between them. In a time when nouvelle cuisine took centrestage in the 1980s, Chef Robuchon revolutionised the global culinary scene with his almost bourgeois French haute cuisine where he pursued absolute perfection and focused on using only the best cooking equipment to flesh out the original flavours of the freshest, highest quality produce.
Chef Robuchon was first recognised for his culinary brilliance at age 28 when he received the prestigious Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Outstanding French Craftsman) award (he was bestowed the same award three years later) and like they say, the rest is history. He was inundated with international tributes ever since, including being the youngest chef ever to own a three-Michelin-starred restaurant, Jamin, in 1984; Bon Appetit magazine naming him ‘Chef of the Year’ (2006); permanently sitting on the panel of Académie Culinaire de France; receiving The Laurent Perrier 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award at The S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants; chairing the committee of the current edition of Le Grand Larousse Gastronomique (the French authoritative encyclopedia of gastronomy) and the list runs on.
He started his own cooking show, called Bon Appétit, Bien Sûr (2000-2009) which had more than 400 top chefs gracing the programme and the first ever cooking cable channel called Gourmet TV with producer and friend Guy Job in 1996.