Yannick Alléno has dedicated his culinary practice to precision

Of course, Alléno's comments are more nuanced than simply discounting his predecessors as too lazy to take the time to reduce and hone the perfect accompanying liquor. He explains that the economic slump that followed the Gulf War, and the influx in overseas hotel ownership it predicated, saw the role of the saucier sidelined in the name of cost cutting.

"A new time arrived and then they looked at the saucier and the commis chef and how much food was used and out it went", he explains. "It was a disaster. You may put soy sauce, some olive oil, ginger, herbs to finish [a dish], but we lose our gastronomy and we lose our DNA.

"I said we have to bring back sauces and have them on the plate. They said they're finished, but I was not convinced about that. Then I start to work on sauces and now [what I've developed] is a technique more than knowledge. Anyone can do it."

What Alléno developed was a process of capturing flavour through extraction, fermentation and cryoconcentration – more on that later – which will be on display in abundance in his first London opening, Pavyllon London at the Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane, from 1 July.

Who is chef Yannick Alléno?

That the chef is not a household name in the UK is somewhat perplexing given the 15 Michelin stars his restaurants hold, second only in number to those of Alain Ducasse.

Alléno wanted to become a chef from a young age, having been taught to cook by his grandmother and raised by parents who ran small bistros in the suburbs of Paris. He moved into professional kitchens aged 15, initially under Gabriel Biscay at the Royal Monceau in Paris, before going on to work with chefs including Roland Durand and Martial Enguehard at Sofitel Sevres Gate and Louis Grondard at Drouant. He later joined the Dorchester Collection's Le Meurice in Paris as chef de cuisine where he first earned it three-Michelin-star status. In 2014 he opened his flagship, Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen, which lies in a former hunting lodge in the Jardins des Champs-Élysées. The site was taken on by the chef in a near-derelict state, so much so that a wall fell on to him during an early visit. However, it was awarded three Michelin stars seven months after opening.

Alongside Alléno Paris in the Pavillon Ledoyen is the chef's two-Michelin-star sushi counter L'abysse, led by Yasunari Okazaki, and one-Michelin-star Pavyllon, the concept he will bring to London.

For the five-red-AA-star, 196-bedroom Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane the opening of Pavyllon represents the first time a truly destination restaurant has taken the space. Lynn Brutman, general manager and regional vice president, says: "We will have hotel guests that are staying for the restaurant, because it does become that destination. And that was the goal. Restaurants and bars are a gateway to come into a hotel. So, you get to experience the hotel with a very low commitment. A meal is a couple of hours, where a hotel stay could be a couple days.

"It allows some people who may come for Yannick, to then see the Four Seasons and for our hotel guests to discover an amazing chef. We just knew it was going to be a good partnership, we were aligned and wanted the same things. We believed in his vision and where his cuisine is rooted, in French gastronomy evolved with his techniques, such as extractions. It's modern, but stays true to who he is."

When I ask why Alléno decided now was the time to enter the London market in partnership with the hotel, he mutters under his breath to a colleague who rushes out of the room, returning with a copy of Four Seasons: The Story Behind a Business Philosophy by the company's chairman and founder Isadore Sharp.

In it Sharp says: "I approached the business of innkeeping from a customer's perspective. I was the host, and the customers were my houseguests. I decided how to build and how to operate by asking myself: What would the customers consider important? What will the customers recognise as value? Because if we give them good value, they will unhesitatingly pay what they think it's worth. That was the first strategy, and it continues to this day."

The message resonates with Alléno, who says the guest must be at the heart of a restaurant. He says: "We don't forget who makes things happen, it's not me, it's the guest. It's the guest, the guest, the guest, we're here for that, it's our job.

"This project is not an ego project. The first objective for us is that people come often because they like the place, that's how we win. I think this is now the right time for Four Seasons and for us. It's the beginning of a new story."

This customer-centric ethos saw the chef respond to reports of the demise of the chef-dictated three-Michelin-star restaurant by introducing a concierge at Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen. The concierge has a far-reaching conversation with guests ahead of their visit, discovering their expectations, preferences, the reason for their visit and the amount they are looking to spend. The team will then tailor their visit to them individually, with Alléno even having been known to create new dishes.

Menus at Pavyllon London

At Pavyllon London, choice is abundant, with two tasting menus (priced at £98 for the Mayfair tasting menu and £148 for the Pavyllon tasting menu) a set lunch menu, breakfast menu and an à la carte menu, which will offer 15 to 17 starters, 12-14 main courses and eight desserts.

The chef says: "I like the freedom, if you want just a starter you can have that, if you want a lasagne you can have that, if you want a main dish or full menu you can have it. For me, this is what I like in this kind of restaurant.

"Of course, it is challenging for the staff, but I do believe this is what we need to do here because I don't want to be an exclusive restaurant – it's something you come to enjoy. Pavyllon is done not for our ego, the concept is done to make people happy."

Dishes will be based on sauces, made using Alléno's extraction technique, as well as the best produce the restaurant can source. While the wide-ranging menu will have a multitude of entry points there will be a category of ‘must-have' dishes, which have "a little bit of extravagance", including a wagyu beef mille-feuille, served with a half tail of blue lobster and charon sauce (£179).

Overseeing Pavyllon London day-to-day will be executive chef Andy Cook, who joined the project from the Maine Mayfair, and head chef Benjamin Ferra y Castell, who has worked with Alléno since 2018 at the chef's 101 Dining Lounge in Dubai's One&Only hotel and latterly at Pavyllon in Paris.

Ferra y Castell says that while the menu will stay resolutely French in style (although fish and chips will make its way on to the bar offering), he is excited to work with British suppliers and is particularly full of praise for British seafood and shellfish. Similarly, while predominantly French, English sparkling wines will make an appearance on the wine list.

Dishes from Paris to London

Signature dishes from the Paris restaurant will also be on to the London menu, including a dish of vegetable ravioli in a broth of vegetable extractions and aromatic oils, which exemplifies Alléno methods. He developed the technique of extraction between 2014 and 2017 as a means of capturing purity of flavour, in what he describes as a "revolution".

He says: "A sauce was a pot [in which] you mix everything, to create a liquid which you then reduce using heat for many hours. You are left with a liquid that's tasty, but that heat is a huge destructor of things.

"I questioned why we have to cook everything at the same time and decided to cook every element one by one, working deeply on that to make sure every element is exceptional, so I know that celeriac should be cooked at 83ºC for 12 hours.

"Then if we think to reduce it, we have to find another way so I do not destroy the first operation, and so we have a technique where you reduce by freezing and so there is no destruction. We freeze the liquid and the water crystallises and after that you have clarification. It's a revolution."

The key, he says, is that the vacuum cooking of each element is never done at a temperature exceeding 83ºC, where you begin "the destruction of the life". Extraction is used across Alléno's wider portfolio, including in cocktails such as a Bloody Mary to be served in Pavyllon London's bar, which, he says, makes the drink "more intense, more flavourful and light", as well as in desserts and the chocolate produced by his Paris boutique Chocolat Alléno & Rivoire.

As well as concentrating flavour the method allows him to reduce the presence of fat and sugar in his cooking. He says: "Today we have to focus on what people expect to have. There are a lot of allergies, a lot of dairy [intolerances] so we have to think about this. We have to know our responsibility to feed people. It's a huge responsibility and when you do that you have to be sure you do it well and you're responsible about their health. We host people and we have to take care of them, I think this is our responsibility as chefs."

Pavyllon London's team will number around 100, serving 80 covers in the restaurant, 40-45 in the bar and 20-25 in the terrace as well as private rooms upstairs. A number of the team from his Paris restaurant of the same name have travelled to London to oversee the restaurant's launch on 1 July. Alléno says: "I'm very happy with what I see now, the team are very proud of the place. I'm lucky always to meet people like the team here, it's a fantastic team."

Pavyllon London is a personal project for Alléno and he has named the restaurant's bar for his son, Antoine, an aspiring chef himself, who died in a car crash in Paris in 2022 at the age of 24. Pavyllon's website describes Bar Antoine as a "a happy and fun place to celebrate, converse and connect", but the chef has a more succinct way of describing how it will embody his son: "I think the spirit is singing in the rain, he was always happy."

He adds: "This is the human side, that's why I stay like this and move forward because around me I have a lot of love and it's fantastic."

Yannick Alleno's portfolio

Paris

• Pavillon Ledoyen
• Alléno Paris (three-star)
• Abysse (two-star)
• PavYllon Paris (one-star)
• Père & Fils par Alléno

Saint-Émilion

• La Table de Pavie (two-star)

Monaco

• PavYllon Monte Carlo (one-star)

Courchevel

• 1947 (three-star)
• Le Restaurant de Cheval Blanc Courchevel

Monteforte D'Abla, Italy

• Fre (one-star)

Dubai

• Stay (two-star)
• 101
• Zest

Seoul

• Stay
• Bar 81
• The Lounge

From the à la carte menu

Starters

• Tomato seed soup, mussel ice-cream, garden peas, shiso and tomato seed vinaigrette £26
• ‘Badaboum' organic egg with Osciètre caviar, sorrel, salish smoked salt £69
• Slightly warm potatoes, glazed with lovage mayonnaise, kombu broth, seaweed and cucumber £23

Mains

• Line-caught sea bass aiguilette, veil of seaweed, celeriac mousseline, parsley foam £59
• Roasted crown of pigeon and legs confit, blackcurrant gel, wild dill purée and gratinated foie gras toast £44
• Fetuccini with basilic sauce, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese £28

Desserts

• Vanilla Napoléon, earl grey caramel, sugar-free orange confit £18
• Spiced chocolate clover, roasted coffee ice-cream, cardamom £18
• Cherries Jubilee, as Escoffier served to Queen Victoria, fresh almonds, pistachio ice-cream £18