The famous French chef Marc Veyrat has announced that he will ban Michelin Guide inspectors from entering his new restaurant in Megève, six years after his conflict with the hotel and tourist gastronomic directory. He confided in the columns of Parisian Sunday January 12, 2025.
A stubborn resentment. At 74, French chef Marc Veyrat doesn't want to be bothered. Recently, he inaugurated the restaurant Rural by Marc Veyrat, in the ski resort of Megève, in Haute-Savoie. An exclusive establishment which can only accommodate 18 guests, where the meal costs 450 euros per person, excluding drinks.
But the famous chef gave a very special instruction regarding his restaurant. In fact, Michelin Guide employees are not invited. “I don’t want to be in the Michelin Guide and I’m ready to put a sign outside saying: 'Michelin Guide banned'“, he assured our colleagues at Parisian Sunday January 12, 2025. If the septuagenarian is aware that the inspectors of the hotel gastronomic directory operate anonymously, he has publicly announced that he does not want them to be interested in his establishment.
The repercussions of “Cheddargate”
A grudge against the Michelin Guide which results from a “Cheddargate” in 2019. Michelin, which rewards the best restaurants in the world, had removed one of the three stars from the Maison des Bois de Manigod, located in the mountains of Marc Veyrat's childhood. The inspectors then criticized the French chef's soufflé for its cheddar.
A decision which outraged the 74-year-old cook, who then emphasized in a letter that he had only used local cheeses in his dish: Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme.
-“My employees were furious. We only use eggs from our own chickens, the milk comes from our own cows and we have two botanists who come every morning to pick herbs“he then lamented.
Speaking to France Inter in September 2019, the chef suggested that the inspector had confused the yellow color of saffron with cheddar. “Is that what we call knowledge of a place? It’s just crazy”he regretted, saying he was deeply depressed following this demotion, described as “worse than an injury”.
Marc Veyrat had already distanced himself from Michelin. When he relaunched, in 2020, La Fontaine Gaillon, an establishment located in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, he had already told inspectors to move away from it.
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