Sebastien Bras, owner and head chef of the three-star Michelin-rated French restaurant Le Suquet has asked to be excluded from the restaurant guide’s next edition.
His decision represents a growing problem for Michelin and the latest chapter in the history of its enigmatic guide.
That history begins in 1900, when the French tire company Michelin introduced a motorist’s guide to gas stations. Over the next three decades, the guide grew to encompass restaurants judged to have reached one of three starred levels. One star is awarded for “a very good restaurant in its category,” two stars for “excellent cooking, worth a detour,” and three stars for “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.”
Today, Michelin’s annual restaurant guide is commonly regarded as Earth’s most prestigious: One star can put a restaurant on the map, two stars can make an owner rich, three stars can turn a restaurant into a culinary deity.
Yet as Bras explains, the glory comes with a price. As the chef told AFP, “You’re inspected two or three times a year, you never know when. Every meal that goes out could be inspected. That means that, every day, one of the 500 meals that leaves the kitchen could be judged.” Such conditions mean “huge pressure” that Bras would rather do without. “I will be able to feel free, without asking myself whether my creations will please the Michelin inspectors or not.”
Bras’ decision reflects a growing challenge for Michelin.
It started in 1999 when famed British 3-star chef Marco Pierre White gave up his stars. White explained:
[I] gave Michelin inspectors too much respect, and I belittled myself. I had three options: I could be a prisoner of my world and continue to work six days a week I could live a lie and charge high prices and not be behind the stove or I could give my stars back, spend time with my children and re-invent myself… I was a contradiction, in the sense that I spent 17 years chasing something I never wanted. True success is self-discovery. I don’t need stars to feel good about myself.
The next major blow to Michelin came in 2003, when 3-star chef Bernard Loiseau committed suicide after speculation he was about to lose a star. As outlined in the 2010 BBC documentary, “The Madness of Perfection,” Loiseau’s death sparked growing introspection by chefs that has since led to escalating numbers surrendering their stars. And considering his reputation as one of the world’s very finest culinary masters, Bras’ decision is only likely to fuel this trend.
That’s a problem for Michelin, because the business benefits of their restaurant guide are immeasurable. It’s not just about the guide; it’s the fact that the guide lends an aura of excellence and class to Michelin’s other products — including its tires.
But when it comes to stars, for chefs as for astronauts, danger lurks alongside seductive glint.
