Much worse than brutally broken crockery. The announcement, Monday evening, of the downgrading of several great chefs including Guy Savoy and Christopher Coutanceau to the Michelin, caused a stir in the world of gastronomy. One week before the revelation of the 2023 winners, Monday March 6 in Strasbourg, the famous red guide has chosen to launch hostilities. First by revealing the bad news to better communicate the good news on D-Day? The communication operation would be clever…
In the meantime, it has also revived a debate as old as the famous directory: is it so important for a restaurant and can it live without it? Can we get rid of it? “It’s like someone saying they don’t want to be judged on TripAdvisor anymore, that’s not possible! », Estimates a specialist in the question, recalling the obvious: the Michelin Guide chooses who it references. Like any private publication can write in the interest of its readers.
There is, however, a recent exception. In 2018, Sébastien Bras had demanded, and obtained, to no longer be mentioned. “It lasted a year and at the next edition, Le Suquet came back, with no longer three but two stars”, we are having fun today in the team of the chef of Laguiole. The person concerned does not display the macaroons on the front of his establishment. Worse, “he no longer pays any attention to it”, we explain from Aveyron. “He lives a lot better without thinking about it and cooks for his customers. Without the pressure and the constraint that represented. Maybe star hunters don’t come anymore, but reservations haven’t changed: the restaurant is full all year round. »
Before him, others had also chosen to leave the pages of the gastronomic directory. “But often because they were at the end of their career and/or wanted to embark on another project”, sums up another expert in the field. For having turned to television in 1996, Joël Robuchon can be cited. Alain Senderens also fits perfectly into the definition. In 2005, the sexagenarian had voluntarily stored his piano at three stars to, he said, open “a different restaurant, a great food without fuss, less bombastic”. Then Antoine Westermann in 2006 and Olivier Roellinger in 2008 also made similar decisions, like several less recognized chefs.
“The Michelin no longer has any credibility”
“Some also decide to withdraw because they learned that they were going to be downgraded”, specifies an interlocutor without naming names. Marc Veyrat, he had even brought, then lost, a lawsuit for having been demoted in 2019. The Haut-Savoyard has since been virulent against the red guide. This Monday evening again, he judged with the Dauphine Libere the “lost” guide. “The Michelin no longer has any credibility. They do not know the psychological drama they are causing with the leaders and their teams, ”he said again, echoing in particular the suicide of Bernard Loiseau in 2003. The enormous pressure suffered had then been mentioned. to try to explain the gesture of the famous French cook and restaurateur.
Would the famous directory ultimately be harmful to the profession? Today doubly starred and cited among the favorites for the third next week, Olivier Nasti refutes this idea. “When you are in the work and the requirement every day, you also need this recognition, admits the owner of Chambard, in Kaysersberg (Haut-Rhin). It allows us to situate ourselves, to make ourselves known and to explain to our customers why our menus are so expensive with the exceptional products that we use. Even if it is not the only one, the Michelin is a benchmark in our career. »
“We can criticize them but it is the only house that continues to do the job of food critic with the means that it requires”, we extend on the side of the Clos des Sens, already triple starred in Annecy (Haute-Savoie ). “They come several times a year, often more than five, and their decision is considered and collegial. In addition, they accept all the paths taken by the chefs and judge the level reached, whether with very traditional or extremely modern cuisine. It is a reference, our guardian of the temple, and thanks to them we can be in the permanent requirement. »
“If he doesn’t evolve, it’s not okay. If it evolves too much, it’s not going well either, continues Olivier Nasti. Whatever it does, the Michelin is criticized. And still quoted more than one hundred and twenty years after its creation.