Marc Veyrat, the comeback king of French cuisine, was back on the top of the culinary tree Monday after the Michelin guide awarded him the maximum three stars.
Flamboyant French Chef Marc Veyrat, who is rarely seen without his black Savoyard hat and cape, has now won the top three-star Michelin rating for three different restaurants over the course of his career. — AFP Photo
The
flamboyant chef, who is rarely seen without his black Savoyard hat and cape,
has now won the top rating for three different restaurants over the course of
his career.
Nine
years after Veyrat was forced to give up cooking after a serious skiing
accident and three after his alpine restaurant La Maison des Bois burned down,
the 67-year-old was back at the summit of French cooking.
Famed
for his highly inventive creations that mix delicate infusions of wild herbs
with hearty traditional Savoyard cooking, Veyrat is one of only two
"new" chefs promoted this year to the elite club who hold three
stars, a source told AFP.
The
self-taught master, who has spent most of his life cooking in his home village
of Manigod 1,600 metres up the Alps near Annecy, has twice been given the
maximum 20 out of 20 score by the rival Gault-Millau guide.
Veyrat,
whose organic alpine vegetable gardens around his restaurant almost make it
self-sufficient, is a pioneer of using wild mountain herbs in broths and
fermentations, and cites the botanist Francois Couplan among his heroes.
Renowned
fish cook Christophe Bacquie of the Castellet Hotel in the Var region of
southeast France was also awarded a third star for the first time.
Perfumed cream of
kaffir lime
The
45-year-old is best known for his Mediterranean-influenced recipes, including
John Dory, crab and caviar served in a perfumed cream of kaffir lime, and
whiting in a butter moose swimming in a reduction of chicken and truffle with
truffled mashed potatoes.
Only
a tiny club of 28 chefs hold three stars from the Michelin guide, the bible of
French gastronomy.
Last
week for the first time the Michelin allowed a top French restaurant to bow out
of its listings after its chef said he no longer wanted to work under the
"huge pressure" of being judged by its inspectors.
Sebastien
Bras’ Le Suquet restaurant in the rural Aveyron region had held the maximum
three-star rating for 18 years.
This
year the guide is launching a mentoring scheme led by Anne-Sophie Pic, the only
woman at the head of a three-star restaurant in France, to help chefs cope with
the pressure Michelin stars bring.
"It
is a great boost to get a star," Pic said, "but there is also extra
pressure as well as the fear of losing it. It can be a steamroller. With more and
more people wanting to book a table at your restaurant, their expectations also
rise."
The
2018 Michelin rankings were to be unveiled at a press conference at a Paris
theatre later Monday.
However,
the organisers have already said more foreign-born chefs will number in its
ranks and that five more stars have been rewarded than last year.
The
full Michelin guide for France, whose ratings are based on usually two or three
visits by anonymous inspectors, will be published on Friday.
By AFP