Alain Sailhac

The Dean of Culinary Studies at The French Culinary Institute since 1991, Chef Alain Sailhac brings over 40 years of expertise to one of the country's leading gastronomic training grounds. A master of his art who brought a four-star rating from the New York Times to Le Cygne and reigned as the Executive Chef at Le Cirque during its heyday in the 1980s, Chef Sailhac takes pride in grooming the next generation of culinary stars by setting the same exacting standards that led to his own success.

Chef Sailhac, however, didn't find success overnight. Rather, it came after a lifetime of devotion to his craft. At the age of 14, he took his first job at Capion restaurant (rated one star in the Michelin Guide) in the small French town of Millau, deep in the heart of the Cevennes, where he was born in 1936. For three years, he biked to Capion at dawn to perform his first kitchen duties: cleaning the floor and shoveling coal for the hot oven fires. From 1954 to 1956, he refined his cooking skills in Paris, working in restaurants at the Hotel Claridge and Normandie Hotel and, later, at Club Med and Relais Gastronomique. He next honed his talents in such far-flung settings as the Grand Hotels in Guadeloupe and Rhodes and at Le Perroquet in Chicago.

But his greatest culinary achievement took place right here in New York City. In the seventies, he led the kitchens at Le Cygne and got the first four-star rating ever from the New York Times. Following Le Cygne, Chef Sailhac spent seven years as executive chef at Le Cirque during its heydey. There, he received another four-star rating and put many young cooks on the path to stardom. After Le Cirque, Chef Sailhac also served as executive chef at The "21" Club and The Plaza Hotel.

Looking for a "challenge" to top off his celebrated career, in 1990 Chef Sailhac accepted an invitation from Dorothy Cann Hamilton, Founder and CEO of The French Culinary Institute, to become the establishment's Dean and official mentor. There could not have been a better partnership, and it's easy to see why.

As Dean of Culinary Studies, Chef Sailhac personifies the spirit of the school. His dedication and willingness to work hard, even at the simplest tasks, are virtues he requires in each and every one of his pupils. It is really no surprise that the school's credo of Qualité, Discipline, and Réalité, so closely mirrors his own commitment to excellence.

From the South of France to Greece and New York, Sailhac has spent the better part of his life defining the standards by which the world's greatest chefs have been measured. But now, as Dean of Culinary Studies at The French Culinary Institute, he is doing more than just setting the standards -- he is producing the very chefs by whom future generations will undoubtedly be measured.