France’s Michelin guide gave the country’s most famous chef a much-prized third star but stripped another of his establishments of its top ranking Monday as the restaurant world reeled after the appar
France’s Michelin guide gave the country’s most famous chef a much-prized third star but stripped another of his establishments of its top ranking Monday as the restaurant world reeled after the apparent suicide of the “world’s best chef” Benoit Violier.
Alain Ducasse, 59, picked up the highest rating for his restaurant at Paris’ swish Plaza Athenee hotel while he lost a star for another of his tables in the French capital at the equally opulent Le Meurice hotel. But with the pressure top chefs face highlighted by the death of French-born Violier on Sunday — just two months after his Swiss restaurant was named the best in the world — the guide raised eyebrows by stripping a star from another restaurant whose founder had also killed himself.
Bernard Loiseau shot himself with his hunting rifle in 2003 after another guide, the Gault & Millau, lowered the rating of his renowned establishment in the Burgundy region. Loiseau’s widow Dominique said Monday she was “shocked and disappointed” by the decision to reduce the Relais Bernard Loiseau to two Michelin stars after 25 years at the top of the table.
But the guide’s US-born international director Michael Ellis defended his inspectors’ judgement. “It was a difficult decision but it is part of the job,” he said. “We made numerous visits to be absolutely sure.... I hope the Relais Bernard Loiseau gets the star back as soon as possible.”
Big name British chef Gordon Ramsay’s Trianon restaurant at Versailles was also downgraded, dropping to just one star. The police are still investigating the circumstances of Violier’s death near Lausanne in Switzerland. Like Loiseau, he was found with his hunting rifle by his side. Several of France’s greatest chefs have pulled out of the Michelin in the past, claiming the pressure it puts on them and their staff was too great.
Violier retained his three Michelin stars for the Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville at Crissier when its Swiss guide was published in November.
