Ten days before the official release of the Michelin Guide and for the first time in history, the famous Red Guide has just announced that the Paul Bocuse Restaurant, triple star since 1965, has been classified 2 stars.
The restaurant loses its third star just two years after Paul Bocuse passed by. This is the second sound pull back by the inspectors of the Michelin Guide France in a row.
La Maison des Bois -Marc Veyrat was the stellar cut of 2019.
“Although upset by the inspectors’ judgment, there is one thing we never want to lose, that is the soul of Mr. Paul,” said the Paul Bocuse restaurnt owners in an official communication published today, regreting the pull back of the star by the inspectors of the Michelin Guide.
“Paul Bocuse was a visionary, a free man, a force of nature, and it is in this spirit that we have built the new experience that we have been orchestrating since October 2019.
“From Collonges and from the bottom of our hearts, we will continue to bring the Sacred Fire to life with audacity, enthusiasm, excellence and a certain form of freedom,” the official communication signed by Bocuse family, Vincent Le Roux and all the crew says.
While Veyrat sued the Guide, at Paul Bocuse they just keep on working, despite upset
“Although late compared to the printing schedule for the Michelin Guide 2020, we unveiled our new experience entitled <<Tradition on the Move>> in October 2019.
Considered exceptional by many of our customers, gastronomic experts or journalists, this experience will take on its full dimension as soon as we reopen on Friday, January 24, 2020,” announced the official communication issued today by the owners and team of Paul Bocuse Restaurant.
The reaction of Marc Veyrat was by far more aggresive. The chef announced he was suing the Michelin Guide and assured he didn’t want to stay listed on it any more.
“They dared to say that we put cheddar in our souffle of Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme!. They have insulted the region, my employees are crazy about!. While we have the eggs form our hens, we milk our cows and two botanics go to pcik our plants everyday in the morning!”, complained Veyrat a soon as he was told the reason why the Michelin inspector decided to pull back the 3rd star.
Despite that fuss, La Maison des Bois-Marc Veyrat still appears in the Michelin Guide France 2019, showing the two star rating.
Are Michelin Stars actually worth to die for?
Considered by many restaurant critics as just impossible to reach nowadays the standards required by the Michelin Guide make of their stars one of the most coveted calification among restaurant proffessionals. While this is true there are more than one French and not French chef that abandon the run to maitain the three stars rate or even any star rate.
Le Suquet was allowed to drop out the Michelin list as its chef owner, Sebastien Bras said he didn’t want no longer cooking under that pressure. There were gossip speculations on that Bernard Loisseau’s suiccide was somehow linked to the stress of keeping the stars of his ephonimous restaurant.
Not so related to the stress of keeping the Michelin stars rate but more due to a new approach to the own activity and business, some world reputed chefs have changed the high cuisine way for upscale casual dining concepts.
A great fuss was triggered when Alain Senderens one of the fathers of the Nouvelle Cuisine returned the 3 Michelin Stars back to the Guide saying that he was fed up of the old fashioned luxury restaurant way. He announced that he would transform the restaurant Lucas Carton into a new Alain Senderens venue isnpired by the brasserie concept.
In Spain, where I am from, the latest case of high cuisine leave of a reputed chef is that of Dani García. The andalusian cook closed his 3 Michelin starred Dani García restaurant in Marbella (Spain) to open a great number of restaurants out of Spain, all of them under the casual dining branded conepts he has conceived, such as Bibo or Lobito.
García has opened its first casual restaurant of the announced range at the Marriot St. Regis Hotel in Doha (Qatar). It is called Bibo and the chef has partnered with the local Group Fardan to open it.
Another chef that left the 3 Michelin stars pressure far behind after creating his own world reputed standard of creativity is Ferran Adrià. His right hand and nephew Albert Adrià, also a starred chef himself, has created a whole range of upscale gastronomic concepts at El Barri (Barcelona).
None of the chefs quoted above are precisely dying to keep a Michelin Star and nobody seems to need for any star to enjoy what this outstanding professionals offer at their venues.
That’s the same case of the Bocuse D’Or competition. Those chefs who win the Bocuse are quality certified, but there are also many world reputed professionals, among them great Spaniard chefs such as Mario Sandoval, that never succeeded in this competition or even they thought ever to take part in it. René Redzepi (Noma) or Ferran Adrià (elBulli Foundation) are good examples of no “Bocused” outstanding creative chefs.
Image over the headline.- Paul Bocuse Restaurant (Collonges au Mont d’Or, France). Image on the public domain. To watch the original photo click here
