Chef as a brand

The last two decades have seen chefs with global status rapidly expand their international footprint, sometimes at a cost.

Gordon Ramsay's culinary empire has had a financial journey of peaks and troughs almost as notorious as the British chef's famous temper—and his career high of 16 Michelin stars is now trimmed to seven.

Fellow British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver saw his UK business go into liquidation earlier this year with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.

Yet Ducasse—much like the late Joël Robuchon whose restaurants earned 32 Michelin stars during his career—sails on, expanding with no shortage of critical acclaim.

Morpheus, which just celebrated its one year anniversary, earned two Michelin stars within six months.

Ducasse's arrival in Macau was fortuitous.

The gambling hub has been ordered by Beijing to diversify away from casinos and become a more family-friendly destination, leading to a dramatic surge in fine dining given the plethora of well-heeled, primarily mainland Chinese tourists that flock to the city.

It now boasts three three-star restaurants and five two-stars—an astonishing per capita ratio considering Macau is home to just 620,000 people.

Macau, Ducasse says, is now "very competitive. (You) cannot sleep, you have to stay awake".

Ducasse's first foray into Asia began some 15 years ago in Japan, followed by Hong Kong and then Macau. Later this year he plans to open a restaurant in a glitzy Bangkok mall and a Mediterranean influenced grill in Singapore's Raffles hotel.

But Asian cooking, he says, is something he never plans to take on.

"I'm not going to be a sushi master because it takes ten years to learn to be a master of sushi. I do not have enough time," he says.

Customers in Asia, he explains, are looking for the best of French cooking.

(Related: Top Chefs Alain Ducasse, Anne-Sophie Pic and Jereme Leung To Debut At Raffles Hotel Singapore)

‘Haute Couture’

The one overseas cuisine he says he feels more comfortable incorporating into his top-end restaurants is Middle Eastern fare—something France understands because of its colonial footprint.

While all of Ducasse's top-tier restaurants are unabashedly French—London's Dorchester, the Plaza Athénée in Paris and the Le Louis XV in Monaco—his restaurant IDAM in Qatar, he says, is an exception to this rule.

"It's an incredible location, we're doing very high Middle Eastern gastronomy," he enthuses. "With French techniques, it's very interesting as a job."

Much of his cooking inevitably cater to the one per cent—the tasting menu at Le Louis XV clocks in at $410 a head while one of his most famous signature dishes pairs rockfish jelly with a generous dollop of gold caviar.

But followers of Ducasse's food empire have noticed a shift in recent years to more accessible eateries.

(Related: Jessica Prealpato, Inventor Of Guilt-Free Desserts, Is World's Top Pastry Chef)

New openings such as Spoon 2 in Paris, Omer in Monaco—even the Singapore and Bangkok ventures—are more brasserie than haute cuisine.

With rising anger about inequality in the West, is Ducasse looking to democratise his cooking?

He rejects this idea and says it's more down to business realities—the sheer amount of time and effort required for the top-end restaurants cannot be replicated ad hoc.

He draws on a fashion metaphor.

"You cannot just multiply haute couture, each time it requires special creations, it's the same with culinary creations and space," he says.

Those restaurants that bear the full name—like Macau's Alain Ducasse at Morpheus —are what he devotes the most energy to.

He explains: "Everything else is prêt-à-porter."