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Alain Ducasse has already taken haute cuisine to great heights, in menus for the Concorde jet and for astronauts. But opening a restaurant in the Eiffel Tower comes with its own challenges.

Though only 125 metres up, there's no gas cooking because of safety concerns. All the decor had to be light so as not to weigh on the 118-year-old iron structure. And because space is tight, food is prepared in an underground kitchen.

The celebrity chef's new endeavour - called Jules Verne, like the restaurant it replaced - opened for its first dinner last weekend. As staff frantically unwrapped cartons the day before, spilling bubble wrap and shards of cardboard onto the new carpeting, Ducasse took time out for an espresso and a chat about his vision.

"I think our only alternative in this monument is to be 100-per-cent French," he said.

So what exactly is his vision of modern French cuisine?

"Beautiful products, perfect technique, perfect harmony, a few precise, reduced sauces, [everything] in harmony with French wines," he said.

Despite the buzz around the restaurant, critics have not yet sampled its cuisine.

Ducasse, who has 16 Michelin stars and more than 20 restaurants around the world, says the menu price is "accessible to everyone:" about $108 for lunch and $216 for dinner, without wine. He shrugged off a question about whether setting up in France's most famous landmark - with more than 6.7 million visitors last year - might be too touristy for his elite brand.

"For us, the Eiffel Tower is a restaurant more than a place to visit," the 51-year-old chef said, adding that he hopes to cultivate a mix of tourists and Parisians. The restaurant seats up to 120 and takes reservations.

To get to the restaurant, diners take a private elevator, where the ambience includes a playlist. Guests ascend to one set of tunes - the mix includes Edith Piaf and modern French artists - and descend to another.

The decor is minimalist, with retro-style tan leather chairs, light-coloured tablecloths and white plates. The setting's main attraction is the panoramic view of Paris. The ceiling lighting is by designer Hervé Descottes, who lit up the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, and it's crisscrossed by glowing lines that mimic the traffic patterns of Paris. The lighting is gentle, so the view isn't obscured at night.

As for the cuisine, the dinner menu includes roasted imperial langoustine with sautéed green vegetables and black truffles; pan-seared beef tournedos and fresh duck foie gras with souffléd potatoes and Périgueux sauce; as well as lime soufflé, wild strawberry in warm juice and tangy sorbet.

Ducasse no longer toils behind the stoves but jets between his award-winning restaurants in places from Tokyo to Las Vegas. Or, as he puts it: "I don't work, I dream ... I illustrate my dreams."

Ducasse just opened a restaurant at the Dorchester hotel in London, and he is working on two new ones in New York - Adour at the St. Regis Hotel, to open in a month, and Bistro Benoît New York, making its debut later in 2008.

For Jules Verne, Ducasse enlisted chef Pascal Feraud, who has worked in many of his restaurants, including the Louis XV in Monaco. "We reworked the classics," Feraud said as his staff sliced up foie gras.

The company that runs the Eiffel Tower awarded Ducasse a nine-year contract. His team worked on the project for about two years and began remodelling only about four months ago, after the closing of the restaurant's previous incarnation, applauded more for its view than its food.

Ducasse said everything they ripped out was weighed, along with everything they put in, to avoid putting extra strain on the 1889 monument.

Underneath the Champ de Mars, the garden at the tower's base, Ducasse equipped a second kitchen for all the "dirty work - washing the salad, gutting the fish and the poultry." The food then takes an elevator into the sky.

For more information, visit http://www.alain-ducasse.com.