Alain Ducasse Wins Lifetime Achievement Award From World's 50 Best Restaurant Awards

French chef Alain Ducasse has been chosen to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from San Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards for 2013.

Ducasse, who operates about 30 restaurants around the world and oversees two cooking schools, was chosen not just for his talent and entrepreneurship, but also for his mentorship. "Ducasse and his team have nurtured and trained a generation of chefs, many of whom are now also part of the world's culinary élite," the press release notes.

He joins the likes of Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, Juan Mari Arzak, Joël Robuchon, and Paul Bocuse, all past winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award. This award will join a slew of others, as Ducasse, now 56, won his first three-Michelin-star award at the age of 33.

This year's World's 50 Best Restaurants winners will be announced April 29; Nadia Santini has already been announced as the winner of World's Best Female Chef for 2013.