All steamed up
Chefs stir the Michelin pot
No-one gets hotter under the collar than a chef passed over for an award. Except perhaps a chef who does not want the award that has been thrust upon them. In SA, the publishers of the MercedesBenz Eat Out guide were taken aback recently when Restaurant Mosaic chef Chantel Dartnall, after 10 years on the Eat Out top 10 list, announced her decision to withdraw her restaurant from consideration to make way for younger chefs.
A spokesperson for Eat Out responded by saying the guide serves the interests of the public and no chef can decide whether or not their restaurant appears in the ratings.
This local spat is a raisin-sized model of the massive bun-fight going on in Europe and Asia, where the 100-year-old Michelin Guide is the premier culinary standardbearer.
No chef has ever sued Michelin before, but right now two are trying to do so — one because he lost a star and the other because he doesn’t want to be in the guide at all.
In a scandal widely known as “Cheddargate”, Marc Veyrat, chef-patron of La Maison des Bois in the French Alpine region, took umbrage at losing one of his three Michelin stars in the last round of ratings.
“In my opinion they are incompetent,” Veyrat, who bears a strong resemblance to Ozzie Osborne, said of the Michelin judges. Speaking to CNN, he ranted: “Do you realise they mixed up reblochon and cheddar?
They said my soufflé was made of cheddar but that is nonsense!”
Veyrat is suing the guide for à1 (about R16) — it’s about the principle, not the money — for the loss of his star and damage to his reputation. He is also demanding that Michelin publish the names of judges and make their reports available, which would contravene the guide’s long-held policy of anonymity.
Michelin’s response was: “Hard cheese, Marc.”
In a televised interview, the guide’s international director, Gwendal Poullennec, called Veyrat “excessively proud and fragile” and suggested he was one of those chefs who thinks: “I must ’ave three stars just because I ham who I ham.”
Defending Michelin’s decision to countersue Veyrat for à30,000, Poullennec said: “We ’ave to avoid emotional blackmail.”
In the opposite corner of the culinary boxing ring is the South Korean chef who is suing the Michelin Guide for including him against his wishes.
Chef Eo Yun-Gwon runs the Italianthemed Ristorante Eo in Seoul. Two years ago, when the Michelin guide to Seoul was launched, Eo received a one-star rating. This year the star was dropped but the restaurant still appeared in the “plate” section of the guide, which is for all the perfectly adequate eateries that don’t quite reach star heights.
Some might think Yun-Gwon’s fit of pique was due to this downgrading but it seems he has been asking to be left alone since 2017. Quoted in the Korea Herald, he said: “It is insulting that my name and the restaurant’s name have been listed in an unwholesome book … I don’t want any help from an opaque, subjective company.”
Michelin has been tough in response to Yun-Gwon’s beef, echoing in essence what Eat Out said to Dartnall: You don’t get to say what we think of your cooking, where we say it or who we say it to.
All sides have merit, depending where your bread is buttered, but there was unqualifiedly bad news from Camp Michelin in Japan this week. The tiny restaurant where Barack Obama said he ate the best sushi he’d ever had is no longer in the Michelin guide to Tokyo.
Ever since 2007, Sukiyabashi Jiro, run by chef Jiro Ono, now in his mid-90s, has held on to its three Michelin stars despite being situated in a subway station and having only 10 seats. In 2011 the place became a cult phenomenon thanks to the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi (arguably the best food film ever made).
Now, however, Jiro’s fame means that regulars and VIPs book the restaurant out for months in advance and he can no longer take reservations from the general public.
A spokesperson for Michelin Japan told
AFP sadly: “It was not true to say the restaurant lost stars but it is not subject to coverage in our guide … Michelin’s policy is to introduce restaurants where everybody can go to eat.”
That sounds a bit like Disney’s 2007 animation Ratatouille (arguably the secondbest food film ever made), in which the deliciously cheesy chef Auguste Gusteau effused: “Anyone can cook.”
Michelin inspectors may not agree with this sentiment but it’s hard to tell, because no one knows who they are or what tests they set.
And no matter how much it grates them, chefs don’t have any say in the matter.