Michael Rouleau, executive chef of La Belle Helene, was working on the line when he looked up and had to laugh. Chef Alain Ducasse, who holds nearly two dozen Michelin stars, was standing in front of him, eating a hamburger.

Ducasse was in town earlier this week to see the restaurant, which his consulting firm, Ducasse Conseil, works with. At a special cocktail reception, Ducasse mingled with guests and led a toast. Before the event began, Ducasse met with the restaurant staff. Rouleau gave him a tour of the kitchen and the staff took photos with the chef before guests arrived.

“He’s a chef in the way he interacts with everybody, from the dishwashers to the general managers to the executives — it’s all really the same” Rouleau says of Ducasse. “It was just very meaningful because he doesn’t have an ego.”

The passed hors d’oeuvres served that night were bite-sized versions of La Belle Helene’s menu, including sliders, beef tartare, oysters, and croque monsieurs. About 175 guests attended, and the kitchen was putting out large amounts of the small bites with the added pressure of a renowned chef in the audience.

“It was very just surreal and it was really hard,” Rouleau says of cooking that night with Ducasse in the crowd. “I feel like the whole world kind of stopped when that happened.”

Rouleau says he wasn’t nervous having the famed chef in the restaurant, but had been anxious to get to the moment where he could serve him food. Ducasse had told Rouleau back in April that he would be coming to Charlotte when Le Belle Helene opened. After the event, a small group including Ducasse and Rouleau went to the City Club, where they dined on fries.

“I’m sitting there eating a bowl of frozen French fries and ketchup with Alain Ducasse, this 23-starred Michelin chef,” Rouleau says with a laugh. “And it was just, it was crazy.” —Kristen Wile

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