After Cognac and Strasbourg, this year the Michelin Man set down his rotund belly in Tours, central France, for a ceremony at the Palais des Congrès attended by the cream of the profession (1,200 guests, including nearly 600 Michelin-starred chefs).
The Michelin 2024 list is a breath of fresh air. There are 62 new stars this year (compared to just 44 last year). That's a lot: almost 10% of the total number of establishments distinguished by the guide. "With 639 starred restaurants, France remains the most awarded destination in the world," observed Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of Michelin Guides.
Poullennec highlighted the youthfulness of the newcomers: More than half the restaurants are run by chefs under the age of 40. Emblematic of this revival, Fabien Ferré, aged just 35, saw his Table du Castellet on the French Riviera awarded the highest distinction, three stars, for its exquisite rendering of Provence and its terroir. Another chef, Jérôme Banctel, has earned this legendary three-starred Grail for his Le Gabriel establishment in Paris. Here, the unexpected and refined combination of cosmopolitan flavors (Breton, Japanese, Turkish) take gourmets to unexpected horizons.
Eight establishments receive two stars. Among them, Le Jules Verne, by chef Frédéric Anton (with Kevin Garcia as executive chef), at the top of the Eiffel Tower; Le Mas Les Eydins, in Southern France, where Alexandra and Christophe Bacquié celebrate Provençal cuisine like virtuosos; Le Saison, near Rennes, and its Breton delicacies pampered by Ronan Kervarrec.
But it's the 52 new one-star restaurants that are the most striking feature. Although there are still a few regulars – such as Thierry Marx, for Onor, in Paris – this year's edition is driven by young chefs whose restaurants are often less than a year old. Eugénie Béziat, at the helm of L'Espadon at the Ritz, punctuates her creations with African flavors. And Manon Fleury, who heads up Datil, a Parisian restaurant that has won awards for its extremely sophisticated, plant-based dishes.
Newcomers happily blur the borders. At Petit Léon, in the Dordogne village of Saint-Léon-sur-Vézère, New Zealand chef Nick Honeyman and his international team are reclaiming the Périgord region as their own. At Sushi Yoshinaga, Tomoyuki Yoshinaga this year opened a temple to top-of-the-range sushi in a refined wooden décor near the Place de l'Opéra in Paris.
Michelin has also awarded nine green stars (for a total of 94 in France), which recognize chefs' commitment to the environment, but these are less highly regarded in the profession. Like the traditional stars, this distinction suffers from the guide's (inherent) lack of transparency regarding its methods. How many inspectors, how many visits: Michelin remains vague on the details. Poullennec simply stated that he employs full-time inspectors of 25 different nationalities, each of whom reviews up to 300 meals a year.
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