Born in 1953, Savoy began training to be a chef at the age of 15 (Source: Guy Savoy/Instagram)
Often regarded as the best chef in the world, Guy Savoy’s Paris restaurant was stripped off a star by the Michelin Guide recently. His Monnaie de Paris restaurant in the French capital was awarded three Michelin stars in 2002 and the eatery maintained this status for two decades. In November last year, the restaurant was also named the best restaurant in the world for the sixth year in a row by La Liste, which aggregates thousands of reviews from across the world.
Along with Savoy’s restaurant, the Michelin Guide also downgraded Christopher Coutanceau’s seafood eatery in La Rochelle, southwest France. Reportedly, the celebrated chefs were informed of this news in a private discussion with the international director of the Michelin Guides, Gwendal Poullennec.
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“We are fully aware of the impact of our decisions on the restaurants concerned. We maintain a trust-based relationship with the gourmets and our readers. They expect our recommendations to be serious and reliable in order to guide them in their choices,” the Michelin Group was quoted as saying by CNN. It added that they are in the process of contacting other restaurants that will also have stars removed and said that the ratings are “in no way permanent” and are reassessed yearly by their inspection teams.
Talking to AFP, Poullennec said the decision to downgrade these restaurants came after careful consideration. “These are exceptional restaurants, so you can imagine that these decisions are carefully considered, supported by numerous visits from our inspectors throughout the year. For such important decisions, we include not just French inspectors but also some from other countries,” he said.
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After not downgrading any restaurant since 2019, owing to the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the latest edition of the guide has removed two to one star from around 20 French restaurants. According to the Michelin Group, these downgrades are necessary to stay relevant. “Yes, there are challenges, but they are challenges for everyone,” Poullennec said.
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Born in 1953, Savoy began training to be a chef at the age of 15 and spent the next few years working with chefs around the world. According to Michelin, as a child, Savoy would peek into the pans in the kitchen of his family’s restaurant, La Buvette de l’Esplanade, in Bourgoin-Jallieu.
He opened his first restaurant in Paris in 1980 before moving it into a more spacious space in 1987 and finally locating it in the Monnaie de Paris in May 2015. The restaurant is designed by Jean-Michel Wilmotte and features six dining rooms adorned with contemporary paintings and sculptures (many lent by François Pinault) and old-fashioned windows overlooking the Seine.
Acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsay was trained under Guy Savoy and has described him as his culinary mentor. “I’ve never known a chef could bring the sea and the earth together in this amazing, balanced way with an articulated lightness and control,” Ramsay said earlier.
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