Three-star chef opens an Italian

TOP chef Alain Ducasse has gone Italian, with a new (relatively) inexpensive restaurant he describes as “at once rustic and refined.”

His new venture, La Trattoria, in Monte-Carlo, has a Scottish-Italian head chef, Robbie Pépin, who has previously worked in Tuscany.

It specialises in “artisanal” products such as Italian charcuterie, fresh pasta and icecream, and is the fruit of many years of meeting Italian producers.

Ducasse says: “I have a passion for Italy; it has meant a whole catalogue of discoveries for me, memories that are enriched with each new trip.”

The chef, who has three three-star restaurants in luxury hotels, said he thought it would be fun to open a new simpler eatery.