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Three-star cuisine: Alexandre Mazzia's restaurant has been awarded by the Michelin Guide
Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP
For the French top chef Alexandre Mazzia, the award by the restaurant guide “Guide Michelin” is a small consolation: The restaurant “AM” of the chef from Marseille was the only French restaurant to be awarded three stars this year.
Because of the corona crisis, the award took place on the Eiffel Tower without an audience and was broadcast on the Internet.
The 44-year-old can't celebrate his success in a big way - his restaurant has been closed since the end of October due to the pandemic.
Mazzia's culinary art is "unique," said the head of the Michelin guide, Gwendal Poullennec, the AFP news agency.
The star chef uses more than 200 spices in his “AM” restaurant with just 22 seats.
Mazzia had only earned two Michelin stars for his restaurant two years ago.
In the corona crisis, the top chef temporarily sold his food to take away via a food truck in Marseille.
He feels like a culinary "jewel seller," he said in the fall.
Originally, the French government wanted to allow restaurants and bars to reopen for the first time in two and a half months this Wednesday.
However, the date has been postponed indefinitely.
The reasons are the increasing numbers of infections and concerns about the spread of new mutants of the coronavirus.
Star chefs continue to be in the minority
Apart from the “AM”, other top culinary addresses received an award: The Parisian “Marsan” by Hélène Darroze and the “La Mérise” by Cédric Deckert in Laubach in Alsace received two stars for the first time.
Top chefs are still comparatively rare: in the exclusive club of three-star restaurants there is only Anne-Sophie Pic from Valence in the south of France.
The Michelin company is best known as a tire manufacturer.
The "Guide Michelin" is a travel guide for motorists in which hotels and restaurants are rated.
To make it easy for travelers to find good addresses, the entries are starred, which means:
A star
stands for very good cuisine that
is
worth a stop
.
Two stars
stand for excellent cuisine that
is
worth a detour
.
Three stars
stand for unique cuisine that
is
worth a trip
.
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fek / dpa / AFP
