The release of the 2021 Michelin guide has been maintained despite the health crisis and the closure of restaurants for six months out of twelve in 2020. It is presented this Monday, from noon to 1 p.m., from the Jules Verne restaurant on the Eiffel Tower , in Paris, and broadcast live on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.
The ceremony in front of an audience of chefs initially planned in Cognac has been canceled (the 2022 launch should however take place there).
Read the file: Michelin Guide 2021: Michelin-starred restaurants
The big question for chefs and food watchers alike was how to remove the stars.
Was the Michelin going to downgrade tables in an already very difficult context for the profession?
Some demotions will concern restaurants that have closed or changed concept.
But the three-star chefs, the highest distinction in the gastronomic world which must be revalidated each year by inspectors after several anonymous meals, can take their breath away.
None of them will know the fate of the Bocuse restaurant, demoted by one star in 2020, or of chef Marc Veyrat, downgraded in 2019, just one year after winning a third star, and who had initiated and lost his case against the famous guide.
The World's 50 Best canceled its list of awards, as did the List, which instead distributed special prizes highlighting the sector's reaction to the pandemic.
As for Gault & Millau, it has frozen its number of chef's hats.
Faced with criticism, several three-star chefs, including Christian Le Squer and Guy Savoy, published posts on Instagram on Sunday highlighting the importance of Michelin for the profession.