Arnaud Donckele's Secret Sauce Is The Sauce

At Plénitude, in Paris, the acclaimed toque feels “less like a chef, more a saucier”.

- Vivian Song

CHEF ARNAUD DONCKELE is describing the time he caught the wake of a passer-by’s perfume and froze from its intoxicating headiness. “Has that ever happened to you?” he asks from the cigar lounge at the back of Plénitude, located inside the five-star Cheval Blanc Paris hotel, across from the Pont Neuf, which opened last autumn as the first LVMH-owned property in the French capital. Without waiting for an answer, the chef goes on to recount the moment when that lingering scent so overwhelmed him with emotion he was forced to stop and regain his senses.

“It’s like love at first sight, but in secret, in passing,” he says. “You turn around, and it’s just, ‘Wow.’ It’s like a ray of sunshine.”