The gastronomic guide Michelin has awarded a new top restaurant in France, its home country, a third star. But the new edition of the Bible of fine cuisine presented in Strasbourg on Monday does not bring good news for everyone. Top chef Guy Savoy has been banned from the ranks of top chefs. Instead of the top rating of three stars, his restaurant “Guy Savoy” in Paris now only has two prestigious stars. From now on it has to do without the description “extraordinary cuisine, worth a trip”.
“The news is still too fresh and Guy Savoy does not want to comment at the moment,” said a spokeswoman for the star restaurateur of the German Press Agency. “We are very disappointed and shocked.” The team at the establishment in the heart of Paris have received numerous statements of support.
Praised and then dethroned
Last year, the famous restaurant guide wrote about “Guy Savoy” as “gastronomy lived like a party, a renewed homage to French cuisine”. The “La Liste” gastronomy guide ranks the “Guy Savoy” as one of the top three restaurants in the world.
The same fate befell Savoy as the “Christopher Coutanceau” in La Rochelle, named after its star chef, whose cuisine was “admirable” in the Michelin Guide last year.
The fact that critics deposed Savoy and Coutanceau from their thrones has caused an uproar in France. Alexandre Couillon, who rose to the top league of three-star restaurants on Monday with his restaurant “La Marine” on the small Atlantic island of Île de Noirmoutier not far from Nantes, said at the ceremony: “I think deeply of Guy and Christopher. “
All in all, the gastronomy bible of the tire manufacturer Michelin in France downgraded five restaurants this year, 20 even lost a star rating completely. There had reportedly been no downgrades in 2021 and 2022. In previous years, the occasional removal of the third Michelin star had also caused a stir. The person responsible, Gwendal Poullennec, whose testers don’t stop at top establishments, once told the newspaper “Le Monde” that the stars don’t belong to the top chefs. “Michelin stars are not inherited, you have to earn them.”
