Michelin Guide Paris 2011

Everyone will be frantically googling tomorrow the results of France's most well known (and increasingly less relevant food guide) , but here's what's come to pass:

No new three stars. There. Said it.

New two stars: Passage 53 (yay! I told you Guillaume ;) ) and Jean François Piege (open mere months....) and Joel Robuchon's new Atelier Etoile at the Drugstore Elysees (open, again, only a couple of months.......)

Cheers to Frederic Simonin for his first at his namesake restaurant and Les Ambassadeurs for getting back their first with new chef Chistopher Hache. Other new one stars include the relatively off the radar Le Baudelaire (huh?) , Sensing (what??) , Antoine (fish restaurant) and La Fourchette de Printemps (okay..)

And apparently lots of the little tables have been recognized with a total of 601 "bib gourmands" (117 new tables) where one may eat for less than 35€ for a three course meal (29€ outside of the city).

Don't think there'll be many more surprises tomorrow, but then again, we're getting used to it .......

Kudos to Stephane Riss for being first at the jump

Michelin Guide Paris 2009

Once again we get the (mostly) credible leaks from the Figaro or France Soir on the new red guide, and once again, it's underwhelming, and unexciting.

Three stars for Eric Frechon at the Bristol.

Two for the Espadon at the Ritz and Gordon Ramsay in Versailles

One for L'Agapé (ho-hum) , La Bigarade (why not) , ETC, Fogon, Jules Verne (of course) , 35 Ouest (what??), L'Arome (mouuui), Angelique (say what?)

New Michelin Red Guide Editor

Change finally? The Michelin Red Guide announces that its new editor is a 38 year old German woman who favours experimental and creative cuisine. Sounds like a good start for me, although the Frogs are gonna hate it....

Let's hear it for the culinary outsiders!

...and what will this mean for promotion of restaurants owned by Germans..... ;)

Michelin Paris Red Guide 2008 Rumours

**LATEST NEWS** according to François Simon's blog: one star each for Il Vino and Aida, and no retrograding for Arpege (but maybe next year...)


It's the time of year when the rumour mill starts predicting who will win and who will lose those precious Michelin stars. Thanks to Chroniques du Plaisir for creating the first online discussion site on facebook and especially François Simon, who, for the last decade or so has had the goods before everyone else.

The guide comes out on March 6th.

Here are a few of the predictions, which seem pretty solid to me. Arpege, seem to be having more and more trouble with their organization (I have sent them tables daily for a very long time) and have noticed a huge difference in the (lack of) quality in their telephone manners and general professionalism. I think they've taken on too many low paid, non- experienced stagieres. . I'm sure the cuisine is still superb, but they need vast improvement on the PR side of things.

Gérald Passédat at Le Petit Nice (last year's espoir) in Marseille will get three stars

Philippe Legendre at Le Cinq will get back his third star

L’Oustau de Baumanière aux Baux- de-Provence, gets two stars and an "espoir" rating.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon gets two stars

Jean-François Piège (Les Ambassadeurs, Hôtel de Crillon) misses out again on his third star.

Didier Elena (Les Crayères) gets his third star (false rumour?)

Alain Passard, loss of one star (probably false rumour)

William Ledeuil (Ze Kitchen Galerie – Paris) gets his first star

Alain Ducasse gets a star for his opening of the Jules Verne (wow, not bad after being open a month or two!)

This is a work in progress that will be continually updated as I get more intell....