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French Chefs Try To Turn Tables On Star System
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"There are some incredible young chefs going back to villages and opening restaurants," Naret said. "French gastronomy is definitely not dead."
In this year's France guide, 425 single stars were awarded, 17 double stars and 26 triple stars.
But many chefs say the cost of maintaining a restaurant to Michelin star specifications, with all the corresponding demands for big staffs providing overly attentive service for overly pricey plates, has become too high.
"The economic situation is far from being good," said Philippe Gaertner, the 50-year-old chef of Aux Armes de France in the Alsatian town of Ammerschwihr. In 2003, he decided to "turn down" the Michelin star that had been next to the family restaurant's name for 67 years. (Naret insists chefs don't have the option of accepting or rejecting stars, a decision left up to the guide.)
"Every day you hear about a new plant shutting down," Gaertner said. "People live in fear, and restaurants are the last thing on their mind. Today, to eat a good meal with friends at a restaurant, it'll cost you the same as going away to a sunny place."
He simplified his menu and trimmed the average price of a meal from about $108 to $72, he said.
Rene Berges, chef of the Relais Sainte-Victoire in Provence, which held a Michelin star for a dozen years, quit chasing the Red Guide awards for another reason. "With the star comes a certain type of clientele," he said. "They expect you to have only small tables and no children."
Chefs across the country were shaken three years ago when Bernard Loiseau, chef of the three-star La Cote d'Or in the Burgundy region, killed himself after restaurant critics reported rumors that he was about to lose one of the stars.
Many people in the French restaurant world blamed the rating system, but Naret rejected that. "The pressure doesn't come from Michelin," he said. "It's very difficult to be at the top all the time -- that's where the pressure comes from."
Researcher Marie Valla contributed to this report.
