Patrick Jouin first met chef Alain Ducasse in 1998 when he asked the industrial designer to create a plate for one of his restaurants. Three years later, designer Sanjit Manku made Ducasse’s acquaintance at a dinner in Paris, where the renowned chef assured him that he made the city’s finest lemon tart—a point that was reinforced later when he couriered Manku his cookbook with a Post-it Note affixed to the page with the recipe.
Since those early encounters with Ducasse, the designers, who later launched Paris firm Jouin Manku in 2006, have worked with the chef on numerous projects, including his namesake restaurants at the Dorchester in London and the Plaza Athénée in Paris, as well as Rivea at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and the recently opened BBR by Alain Ducasse at the revamped Raffles in Singapore. Ducasse says the success of these numerous concepts can be attributed to chemistry. “However, mutual respect and a shared vision are [also] key,” he adds.
Throughout the years, both Jouin and Manku have been particularly struck by Ducasse’s militaristic approach to functionality and the constant quest for perfectionism, all culminating in a desire to ensure that guests sitting down to one of his meals will never forget the experience. “Everything you feel with your senses has to work together, and when everything is perfect, when there is harmony and at the same time poetry and surprise, you can have a perfect moment,” says Jouin.
All three men are incredibly passionate about their work and they never like to repeat schemes. “You put the pencil on the paper and quite quickly there is something we haven’t sought out before. There is something new to explore because every single time there is a new context, even if sometimes we have the pleasure of working on the exact same restaurant,” Manku says. Ducasse adds that they spend a lot of time brainstorming together. “It’s all about feelings, intuitions, and ideas. We talk shapes, drawings, materials, lines, and colors,” says the chef. “As we know each other well, the process is smooth and natural. Yet, this mutual understanding must not turn into a comfortable habit; we still challenge each other and even disagree.”
Alain Ducasse at Morpheus
Inside the Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Morpheus Hotel in Macau’s City of Dreams are two Ducasse restaurants. The more upscale of the two, Alain Ducasse at Morpheus, “displays a refined interpretation of contemporary French haute cuisine,” Ducasse says. A series of curved spaces in the ethereal dining room are delineated by reflecting pools and handblown glass light fixtures that descend like sharp icicles. “We tried to make it a little bit European, but with one foot in Asia and another in some mystical place because we were in this building made by Zaha Hadid. We used mirrors, vegetation, water, sun, and plants and brought our little world together,” says Jouin. Manku likens the centerpiece chandelier to the vast Canadian prairie, where at night, “it’s thousands and thousands of stars. This is one of the most amazing feelings, to be surrounded by something that is almost transparent and just twinkles, and was one of the things we tried to evoke in the Macau project.”
Voyages by Alain Ducasse
With a menu built around the notion of travel, Voyages by Alain Ducasse is the less formal of the pair. The bistro opens with a garden that, while inside, is visible through a wall of glass—adding a tropical jungle vibe to an already playful space, which is further enlivened by a large octopus mural and tile installation decorated with illustrations of food. Amid the bold orange and blue dining room is the circular marble bar. Paired with emerald green stools, it is “the center of energy and life and joy at this place, protected by two symmetric pieces of stone,” adds Jouin. Just as Ducasse’s French restaurant draws from the architecture of the Morpheus, Voyages embodies its spirit, and that of Macau. “It is a city for fun, for celebrating, and we are in its most cutting-edge building,” says Manku. “It has cultural ambition.” Adds Ducasse: “For each [restaurant], Jouin and Manku have created a specific atmosphere, which turns diners’ moods in the right direction.”
Handblown glass at Alain Ducasse at Morpheus in Macau descend like icicles
A lounge at Voyages at Morpheus in Macau peeks into the blood orange dining room
A large octopus mural at Voyages evokes a tropical vibe
A tile installation with illustrations of food adds to the casual nature of Voyages
