Josh Barrie on food: The chefs who shun a Michelin star

New European

28-01-2025

It's that time of year again, when the Michelin Guide dishes out its prestigious stars. This year's UK awards will be held in Glasgow on February 12, though do not imagine that means Scotland is a shoo-in for accolades: last year, Michelin plumped to host its UK ceremony in Manchester but no new stars were handed out to restaurants in the city.
The French guide is an unruly, uncertain and mysterious beast, even if its recommendations help to flood dining rooms – much needed today as hospitality struggles. Tom Kerridge told me only last week that he's barely breaking even this month at his two-star flagship the Hand & Flowers (now 20 years old). I'm sure trade there will pick up. It's Kerridge for one thing, and the pub is in Marlow, where you can find unwanted skis in charity shops and almost every driveway houses a Land Rover Defender.
But the most interesting tale of Michelin in 2025 is about a chef who doesn't want to be in it. We have our fair share of Guide sceptics – Marco Pierre White handed back his three stars years ago and says he prefers to eat out at local Cantonese restaurants or Caribbean canteens in Chippenham rather than the kind of places that Michelin prizes – but nothing compares to the unadulterated ego of an old French chef. There's a reason Ratatouille was set in Paris, you know.
This year's most prominent tyre burner can be found in Megève, a luxurious French ski resort. There, the chef Marc Veyrat has banned Michelin from his latest venture, Le Restaurant Marc Veyrat, where dinner costs €450 a head (that's £380) and where restaurant inspectors aren't welcome.
He told CNN: 'I've even got a small sign on the front door' (warning them off). 'I'm 75 this year. I don't want to be taking exams and getting ranked.'
Five years ago, Veyrat took Michelin to court over an unfavourable review of a cheese soufflé. In 2019, the guide downgraded his restaurant La Maison des Bois, in the Alpine village of La Croix Fry, from three stars to two (it has since been taken on by his daughter, who has renamed it Le Hameau de mon Père, or 'my father's hamlet', in honour of her dad).
Veyrat was incredibly upset at the time and filed a lawsuit against the Michelin Guide . He demanded they remove the listing and called inspectors 'incompetent'.
It gets better. One of the reasons Michelin felt the restaurant was undeserving of its past three stars was because they believed Veyrat had used Cheddar in his soufflé. Veyrat argued he used local cheeses, including Reblochon and Beaufort, and that inspectors could have confused the striking colour with a 'hint of saffron' he had added to his recipe.
Will Michelin visit Veyrat's latest restaurant, his first since the great soufflé war of 2019? I think it would be impossible for any food fan with a hefty expense account to stay away. He is undoubtedly a talented chef – he won three stars after all; two is a monumental feat in itself – and the guide rarely seems to care whether its anonymous inspectors are discouraged.
Also in 2019, Michelin included the South Korean restaurant Eo in its guide to Seoul despite the owner, chef Eo Yun-gwon, asking to be omitted. In Spain, the chef Julio Biosca once returned his star (as much a stunt as anything else, some might say) after claiming it held him back.
Sébastien Bras of Le Suquet in southern France requested to have his place removed after 20 years. Why? He wanted freedom and independence and felt Michelin brought too much pressure. 'Life is too beautiful and too short,' said Bras in 2017.
And Frédéric Ménager maintains that he refuses to let judges into La Ferme de la Ruchotte, his highly rated farmhouse inn up in the hills of Burgundy. He said he has received phone calls from the guide but that 'the only stars that count are the ones in the eyes of guests when they leave the table, mesmerised by their gastronomic experience'.
I can't imagine there will be such drama in Glasgow in February. Few British chefs are as out there as Veyrat these days. He tours his new dining room in sunglasses and a pilgrim-style hat, bases his menu around aromatic herbs, and runs the restaurant with his wife Christine, who is known as the 'beloved witch'.
It is unclear whether they're serving a soufflé. For food's sake, I bloody hope so.