The French Chef Suing The Michelin Guide Because Of A Mix Up Over Cheese

A long-running disagreement between French chef, Marc Veyrat, and the Michelin guide took a new turn today. The renowned chef is suing Michelin, which once lauded his restaurant, claiming that the whole thing started with some cheese.

The giving and taking of Michelin stars

The Michelin guide honoured Marc Veyrat’s restaurant–La Maison des Bois (the wooden house)–in the Haute Savoie region of France with a coveted third star in the 2018 edition of its famed restaurant guide. One year later, in January 2019, they called him up and told him they had decided to take away that star and downgrade his restaurant back to a two-star. Le Figaro reported that the 67-year-old chef retaliated and demanded in July 2019 that he be removed from the guide altogether, denouncing the “amateurism” and “profound incompetence” of Michelin. He declared that the Michelin inspectors were “gastronomic manipulators” looking to create conflict for commercial gain. The Michelin guide refused to remove him, saying it never cedes to demands from the chefs concerned. In a statement it said that Marc Veyrat is a very talented chef, who had trained brilliant chefs, and was “a majestic figure in French gastronomy” but it said that despite his suffering, it will continue to recommend his restaurant.

It all began with some cheese

On Monday, AFP reported that via his lawyer, Emmanuel Ravanas, the feted chef was suing Michelin to find out the exact reasons for the declassification of his restaurant from three to two stars. Veyrat thinks it has all been a misunderstanding over some cheese. France 24 reported that Veyrat thinks a Michelin inspector thought he had used English Cheddar cheese to make a souffle (French savoir faire dictates souffles are made with French cheese such as Reblochon, Beaufort or Tomme). Marc Veyrat is quoted on France Inter as saying,

I put saffron in it, and the gentleman who came thought it was cheddar because it was yellow. That’s what you call knowledge of a place? It’s just crazy.

Marc Veyrat made his name by cooking with the wild herbs found in the mountains of the Haute Savoie region near his home village of Manigod, which is 1,600 metres (5,200 feet) above sea level in the Alps near Annecy. Veyrat wants to see the transcripts of the inspectors’ visits to determine if his hunch is correct.

The Michelin guide has responded saying that they will respond calmly in due course to inform customers why they changed their recommendation. In a statement, they said that they, “understand the disappointment for Mr Veyrat, whose talent no one contests, even if we regret his unreasonable persistence with his accusations.” The court hearing is set for November 27 in Nanterre, near Paris.

Michelin-starred chefs are under a great deal of pressure

Restaurants under consideration by the Michelin guide are visited several times a year and judges cover several countries so that consistency is maintained around the world. They focus purely on the food, rather than the decor, and award points based on flair, skill, quality of ingredients and value for money. It can be a stressful process for chefs who are under enormous pressure to earn and retain stars.

Veyrat is not the first chef to ask Michelin to take back the stars it has bestowed. Many others–like Olivier Roellinger, Alain Senderens, Antoine Westerman, Joël Robuchon and lately, Sébastien Bras–have been weighed down by the burden of being under continued scrutiny and having to assure constant gastronomic excellence. Two major French chefs have killed themselves over the pressure; Bernard Loiseau shot himself in 2003 after a hint that he might lose his three-star status and Benoit Violier committed suicide in 2016 not long after his restaurant in Switzerland was named the best in the world.