Sébastien Bras' Le Suquet restaurant in Laguiole, which held the maximum three-star rating for 18 years, was left out of the 2018 Michelin Guide France at his request after he admitted to struggling with the pressures that came with the award.
But the chef’s restaurant has now re-entered the 2019 edition with two stars.
Despite ‘leaving’ the guide last year the restaurant is not listed as a new entry on the official Michelin press release, but a representative for the guide confirmed it was in the red book with two stars.
In an interview with Centre Presse Aveyron, Bras says the decision to include his restaurant was ‘strange’ and that he felt Michelin was sending a message that ‘a restaurant has no choice but to live under pressure’.
But he says he will continue to run his restaurant in the same way without worrying about potential visits from inspectors.
Star losses and new entries
This year’s Michelin Guide France, which emphasised younger, female and more international chefs, proved controversial across the Channel with a trio of restaurants losing the top rating.
Alsace restaurant Auberge de L’Ill lost its third star after 51 years, while Paris’ L’Astrance was demoted to two stars after 11 years. Marc Veyrat’s alpine restaurant Maison des Bois also lost its triple rating.
Gordon Ramsay’s Bordeaux restaurant Le Pressoir d’Argent maintained its two stars, but the chef’s Au Trianon restaurant at Versailles, which was downgraded to one star in 2016, did not regain its two-star status.
In Paris Greg Marchand’s Frenchie won a Michelin star, ten years after it first opened. Marchand opened a London outpost in Covent Garden in 2016, which is recommended in the Great Britain and Ireland guide – but does not hold a star.
This year’s French guide is the first edition published under Michelin’s new 38-year-old international director Gwendal Poullennec, who took on the role last September.
