This city doesn’t need fancy endorsements from big time chefs to prove it’s one of the world’s hottest dining destinations à ce moment.

Still, it’s nice to get a compliment.

That’s exactly how Torontonians should take the first ever visit from Alain Ducasse, world-renowned chef, author and restaurateur, when he arrives this week.

Ducasse, whose kitchen whites practically ooze Michelin stars, arrived Tuesday, for a whirlwind three days, which include a closely guarded announcement between Ducasse’s cooking school and George Brown’s Chef School and a guided tour of this city’s epicurean landscape.

“He’s heard about how intense Toronto’s culinary scene is,” says Lorraine Trotter, dean of George Brown Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts. “The city was on his radar.”

Ducasse, all suave and silver hair, will kick off his visit Wednesday evening at George Brown College with Montreal-based chef and TV personality Chuck Hughes — the two will chat about the next generation of culinary leaders.

On Thursday he’s the guest of honour at the French Culinary Market, a convergence of the city’s best — and most innovative — in French cuisine (tickets available through George Brown) — a scene that’s also exploding right now with artisanal bakeries popping up at every corner like the city’s decorative winter cabbages.

After that — and in between — Ducasse will be whined, dined and ensconced in meetings and at events with local foodie luminaries, Trotter says. They’ll include both old school chefs, such as Scaramouche’s Keith Froggett and Mark McEwan, and newcomers. Think hot-on-the-scene Grant van Gameren of Bar Isabel and Rob Gentile of the King Street neighbourhood’s ridiculously popular Bar Buca.

“We’ll take him to the leading chefs and introduce him to the new folks, the young, hip guard,” she says. “We have a great deal to offer.”

And it has all happened so fast.

On a visit in late spring to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Pâtisserie in Lyons, France, where George Brown sends students briefly each year to soak up Francophone culinary culture, Trotter and Anne Sado, president of George Brown College, leapt at the opportunity to travel to Paris and meet Ducasse himself.

The three hit it off, Trotter says, over a shared vision of making culinary education, global trends and ingredients more accessible. “We just had so much in common,” she says.

Before they parted ways, Trotter asked Ducasse if he would form a special pastry and culinary partnership — it has something to do with a new program to send 24 lucky students to study and work under Ducasse’s expansive wings — and if he would come to Toronto to announce it in person. He said yes.

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Excitement about the great chef’s visit is palpable. But is it a harbinger of ever hauter Toronto food to come?

“I think we are already at that level,” Trotter says. “Whether we have Michelin stars or not!”