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French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

theguardian.com

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Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#21

Post by lgas »

rjzzleep wrote: post #4

He'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…

> 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.

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#22

Post by mlorenz »

nwhatt wrote: post #5

Part 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.190323656659...

French 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!

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#23

Post by jdietrich »

panopticon wrote: post #10

> 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.

The Michelin guide (and their readers) have fairly specific expectations for a starred restaurant. Many diners expect a Michelin-starred restaurant to provide flamboyant haute cuisine and are disappointed when they receive simple but excellent food. Restauranteurs can feel pressured to live up to the stereotype of a Michelin-starred restaurant, rather than cooking in their own style. Several restaurants have rejected their stars, primarily to escape this weight of expectation.

http://fortune.com/2014/12/11/michelin-star-restaurants-down... https://elpais.com/elpais/2014/12/02/inenglish/1417521188_19...

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#24

Post by QAPereo »

Tomminn wrote: post #11

Makes 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.

Many 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.

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#25

Post by devdoomari »

lgas wrote: post #21
rjzzleep wrote: post #4

He'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…

> 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.

turtles all the way down...

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#27

Post by ue_ »

rjzzleep wrote: post #4

He'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…

>“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?

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#29

Post by mcphage »

panopticon wrote: post #15
sidlls wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I 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)…

At the risk of sounding flippant, isn't that just another way of saying he wants to relax his standards?

Or that he wants to be able to fail sometimes. If you aren't able to fail and keep going, you're never going to be able to push the boundaries.

Re: French chef asks to be stripped of three Michelin stars

#30

Post by wavefunction »

mlorenz wrote: post #22
nwhatt wrote: post #5

Part 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.190323656659...

French 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.…

My 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.

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