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Michelin 'Star Wars' Unappetizing for Chefs

French master Roellinger latest to step back citing exhaustion, pressure

By Kristina Loew, Newser User

Posted Nov 19, 2008 6:16 PM CST

(Newser) – Being awarded 3 stars from the Michelin Guide was once the highest honor for any chef, but non plus, reports Gourmet. Changing tastes and fancy-food fatigue have now pushed three of France’s biggest culinary kings to close their doors—by choice. "Running a three-star restaurant is an honor, but it brings on terrible stress. It is passionate but exhausting," says Olivier Roellinger, who is closing his famed La Maison du Bricourt.

Despite 3,000 restaurants going bust in France and revenue down by 30%, making do without Michelin is nothing new. During France's last recession, young up-and-comers chose the low-scale bistro over white-tablecloth restaurant to launch their careers, said one food critic. "The old model of climbing the pyramid over the course of your career and struggling for every star until you get to the top doesn’t appeal to young chefs today."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Michelin Guides Director Jean-Luc Naret answers a reporter's question in Tokyo yesterday. (AP Photo)

French chef Gerald Passedat, owner of the restaurant Le Petit Nice, works in his restaurant's kitchen, in Marseille, southern France, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Claude Paris)

A fish dish made by a student is seen at the Pachacutec Cooking School, created by Peru's top chef Gaston Acurio in the citadel of the same name, located in Ventanilla, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

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In the future, what will really matter in judging a restaurant is what should have mattered all along—the food.
- François Regis Gaudry, food critic of L’Express

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Michelin 'Star Wars' Unappetizing for Chefs