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French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars
- wiz21c 9y agoso the new fad will be : I'm so rich I have contacts all over the planets how know about those top restaurant that are fortunately hidden of the Michelin guide. So I can go to top restaurant where there none of these poor customers who can barely afford the 3 stars :-)
- nicolashahn 9y agoMakes sense - there's a lot of responsibility that comes with Michelin stars and he wants to be free of it. I guess this is newsworthy because most find the benefits outweigh the downsides. I'm guessing he's got enough acclaim without the stars that it's tilted the scale the other way for him.
- bsder 9y agoExactly, he's had the stars long enough that they are a bother instead of a blessing. Presumably there is also a lot of constraint when making up dishes of the sort of "Would a Michelin reviewer score this well?" which is different from "Is this an excellent dish?"
- andrewmcwatters 9y agoThere's a lot of integrity in the weight of the request, even if it's out of a place of wanting less pressure.
- rjzzleep 9y agoHe's not the only one. [1][3] In fact some places like Kyo Aji from Kenichiro Nishi - who is apparently a very good and famous chef - go as far as ban michelin tourists. Or at least try to. Just look at this discussion on chowhound [2]. Interesting comment: > Kyoaji is probably sick of rich foreigners trying to book via 5 star hotel concierges. Maybe change your strategy, and stay at a budget salaryman hotel and use their concierge? [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/business/worldbusiness/24guide.html?mcubz=1 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/business/worldbusiness/24g... [2]: https://www.chowhound.com/post/secure-kyoaji-reservation-930916 https://www.chowhound.com/post/secure-kyoaji-reservation-930... [3]: https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/09/top-chefs-michelin-stars https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/09/top-chefs-micheli...
- lgas 9y ago> Maybe change your strategy, and stay at a budget salaryman hotel and use their concierge? You could just have your fancy concierge use the budget concierge.
- devdoomari 9y agoturtles all the way down...
- sitkack 9y agoHey kid you now where to get a hair cut and home cooked meal?
- ue_ 9y ago>“Japanese food was created here, and only Japanese know it,” Mr. Kadowaki said in an interview. “How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?” I feel like this has a xenophobic undertone to it; nobody's showing up anywhere, it's a guide which attempts to find good restaurants and food around the globe; what makes the Japanese in his view so specially qualified to judge the food? If the food was only found to be tasteful for Japanese tastes then I doubt it would have made its way into the Michelin guide, no?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- KGIII 9y ago> nobody's showing up anywhere I suspect they are? I mean, if they weren't showing up then the restaurant would be out of business, no? It does read a bit xenophobic, but it might be a pressure thing more than a nationality thing. People try to put pressure on those establishments. Sometimes, it's the chefs themselves who put the pressure on, sometimes it is visitors. People have committed suicide due to the pressures involved in trying to get onto the list and to maintain, or increase, their stars. Failure is difficult and may even result in financial ruin, as if restaurants weren't already inherently risky. So, I'm not sure that it is so much xenophobic as it is simply not wishing to be so publicly judged and/or pressured.
- nwhatt 9y agoPart of me wonders if he wants to be removed in protest, or if he wants to sort of exit with three stars, and not have to deal with being perceived as lower quality by losing a star. I don’t speak French, but here’s the video announcing it: https://www.facebook.com/BrasOfficiel/videos/vb.1903236566598979/1946897092232926 https://www.facebook.com/BrasOfficiel/videos/vb.190323656659...
- kawera 9y agoSeems sincere to me. (french speaker here)
- Iv 9y ago"In the silence and solitude, one only hears the essential" He basically says that he does not want the pressure to preserve his 3-stars status, has no grudge with the Michelin guide that he thanks, and wants to continue his little business without caring more about rating than about the "art de vivre" of his region.
- mlorenz 9y agoFrench speaker here. He's essentially saying: "At 46 years of age, I want to run my business the same as before (with thanks to Michelin for the acclaim they have afforded us) but without the pressure of the three stars." Totally get it, and totally agree. The meaning I take from the video: "Let us do our best without worrying about being judged every second of every day." Must be exhausting to be in that situation. Bravo!
- wavefunction 9y agoMy first inclination is "Why doesn't he just ignore Michelin" but then I realize that a poor ranking in Michelin could do real damage to his business beyond the segment of his guests that is aware of Michelin ratings. Thanks for the translation by the way.
- Grue3 9y agoPretty sure you can't have a "poor Michelin ranking". The restaurants that are judged poorly are not included in the listing at all.
- rednerrus 9y agoProbably tired of maintaining the restrooms.
- robbrown451 9y agoWell, I had never heard of him before and now I want to go to his restaurant. Well played!
- panopticon 9y ago> 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. It sounds like he wants to be able to relax the quality without hurting his reputation. I can't help but to feel that it's disingenuous somehow, but maybe I'm being unreasonable.
- sliverstorm 9y agoOr maybe he just wants to relax. Movie stars generally seem to feel it's harrowing to have your every single move and word scrutinized and photographed. Maybe this is the same way.
- ianai 9y agoI’m sure that’s exactly it. Always being under that sort of pressure isn’t easy.
- sidlls 9y agoI don't know what Michelin's standards are or how they decide whether and at what level to put a chef in their ratings. However, it seems to me he believes that his entire Michelin rating might hinge on one inspection. That's a lot of pressure given all the things that can go wrong in a given preparation. Perhaps he feels it's a bit like being required to write code that compiles with no logic bugs on (more or less) the first try (per customer), every time, and wants a break from that.
- panopticon 9y agoAt the risk of sounding flippant, isn't that just another way of saying he wants to relax his standards?
- ThrustVectoring 9y agoIt's more like a teacher saying that they don't want standardized testing because they want to stop teaching to the test; the chef wants to stop optimizing his cooking for Michelin reviewers. Standards are multidimensional.
- Tomminn 9y agoMakes total sense to opt out on top. I'm surprised more chefs don't do the same. If people say that "it's not the same" after a few years, you can make a come-back with all the free PR that entails.
- QAPereo 9y agoMany many chefs who rise to the top of the game, well they're interesting people to say the least. Not unlike professional soldiers, firefighters, or frankly pirates. Some however I just really really good with food, or really nerdy about food, and I don't really "chef types" per se. However in this world a lot of times people are drawn to being a chef because of a dream of high-level success, or television fame... that also draws a particular kind of person, especially the one who succeed. I want to emphasize though that some of the highest performing chefs don't fit this model I'm talking about, to be completely fair. I think they would agree with my assessment however, at least in many cases.
- pier25 9y agoAs a developer I want to opt out of app reviews too. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
- jowiar 9y agoYou are nailing his actual opinion better than anyone else on here. No need to apologize.
- sprafa 9y agoBig difference, he's not trying to leave Yelp.
- monsieurbanana 9y agoThat's not a big difference.
- jowiar 9y agoBut Yelp isn’t the go-to destination for answering “Where can I find a once-in-a-lifetime caliber meal”. And what this chef wants is to be able to lock in his reputation at delivering said caliber meal without any checking as to whether he still operates at that standard.
- sprafa 9y agoNo he wants to leave the standard entirely. He just wants to be unlisted from something which has changed his life and he thinks, not for the better. I don't see a reason why he shouldn't be allowed to do that.
- jowiar 9y agoThat's complete BS. If he was running a little neighborhood place selling dinner for $30, I'd buy what you're saying. But he's not. Google "Le suquet", and in the Google tagline, you get: "Le Suquet at Laguiole the three star gastronomic restaurant of Sébastien Bras." He'd rather Le Suquet be forever known as "the place that was 3 stars until the Chef told the reviewers to fuck off" rather than "the place that was 3 stars but isn't any more because quality control has slipped".
- leowoo91 9y agoI don't know how this works but it would be better if ratings would be for specific meals only, that way chefs wouldn't stress out trying new variations.
- lozenge 9y agoExcellent food starts with excellent (seasonal) ingredients. Menus can change frequently.
- fermigier 9y agoThe fate of Benoit Violier (French-Swiss chef that took his own life after being awarded his third Michelin star in 2016) come to mind in this context: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/01/benoit-violier-chefs-mourn-french-swiss-kill-himself-talented https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/01/benoit-violier...
- piker 9y agoReferenced in the article as well.
- JosephLark 9y agoThe article actually mentions Bernard Loiseau, not Benoit Violier. Loiseau took his life after hearing rumors his restaurant would be demoted from three to two Michelin stars. There was a book written about the Loiseau event (reads like it was supposed to be a biography at first, of which the suicide obviously overtook the narrative): The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine [0]. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Perfectionist-Life-Death-Haute-Cuisine/dp/1592401074/ https://www.amazon.com/Perfectionist-Life-Death-Haute-Cuisin...
- teekert 9y agoWhy not just do what you like and ignore the stars? This just seems like a weak attitude. "Please, don't judge me anymore I can't take it". If you care, you care, if you don't care you don't care. It's not like Michelin forces him to do anything. Perhaps put a note on the door: "Sorry, I do what I like and at any moment your expectations based on Michelin's stars may be different from what I want to do with my restaurant." Anyway, the 500 meals a day are judged, by more important people, your customers.
- tedivm 9y agoDropping out of "competition" will be better publicity than losing a star.
- mcv 9y agoBut if doing this for publicity, then it's insincere.
- tedeh 9y agoTrue, but I assume the publicity of dropping out would be temporary. A year from now everyone has forgotten about this request anyway, and he will presumably no longer be listed in the Michelin guide anymore. Keeping your Michelin stars is definitely a form of publicity, and a more lasting one at that than a temporary stunt just to get some press. So it would seem to me like a bad move to do this only for publicity.
- tedivm 9y agoYou're missing my point- he's not doing it for publicity, he's doing it to avoid negative publicity down the line.
- imperfectcats 9y agoI wonder if it is the ability to take risks? Here we talk about failing fast. How does a Michelin star restaurant experiment and fail? Maybe having no stars to worry about would help create the next Momofuku pork bun?
- carlchenet 9y agoSenderens French chef was I guess the first one to ask to be stripped of his 3 stars.
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- mcv 9y agoI find it odd that he prefers losing all three stars over losing only one star. If he's willing to lose stars, can't he just ignore Michelin and simply cook the way he wants? I'm reminded of Ron Blaauw, a Dutch 2-star chef who was also tired of the pressure of his 2-star fine-dining restaurant (not sure if it was Michelin or just the kind of restaurant), so he started his more informal "Gastrobar" for just a quick bite instead of Michelin-level dining, and was immediately awarded a star for it.
- louhike 9y agoThere are several comments in this discussion talking about you would want to lose all stars instead of just one. If you lose one star, it will sound like the quality has changed for the worst. Losing all them sounds more like being outside the system.
- mcv 9y agoEven if you've got only one or two stars, you're still regarded as an extraordinarily good restaurant. A do understand how receiving a Michelin star can bring in different clientele that changes the atmosphere of the restaurant for the worse.
- blubb-fish 9y agoIt seems that cheffing is a lot about acting "rebellious" (food rebel revolutionizing how apples are served) and creating big theatre and drama.
- Loic 9y agoAt this level, not at all. 3 stars means that every single serving is perfect by itself, the quality of the ingredients, the texture, the taste. Everything. You cannot allow yourself to not be perfect. For example, you cannot serve something new where you know it is really good but fails a bit on the texture side or it is hard to produce so the quality varies a bit, not a lot, but a bit. If he goes out of the system, he can reintroduce this little bit of freedom. As a programming analogy, 3 stars is like every single piece of code you produce is perfectly structured, integrates nicely in the software, respects the conventions and idioms, has no code debt. You cannot just patch a bit and see how the users react and refactor later. It must be perfect for the user from low level code to the interaction as soon as you put it in the hands of real users. I am full of respect for such decision.
- mannykannot 9y agoWhen the pursuit of quantitative quality becomes a fetish, it's an OCD-like disorder.
- sitkack 9y agoYay! mechanized performance reviews.
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- mmirate 9y agoThis reads like part of an Economics 101 textbook. If quantity supplied is limited and demand increases, the obvious solution is to increase the price enough to hold constant the quantity demanded.
- Bromskloss 9y agoBetter headline: "French chef asks to be stripped of his three Michelin stars because of the huge pressure of being judged on every dish he serves." There, now, the reader gets most of the information content right away.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
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