The Michelin France Guide 2010 arrives
Monday, March 01st , 2010
The Michelin France 2010 Guide announced a new three star establishment, L’Auberge du Vieux Puits with chef Gilles Goujons keeping France with 26 three star places in total (Marc Veyrat having retired). There were ten new two star places: Du Castellet, Les Airelles, Cheval Blanc, Sa Qua Na, Bigarrade, Anne de Bretagne, Auberge des Glazicks, Résidence de la Pinède, L'Oxalys and Château St-Martin & Spa.
There were no demotions at the three star level, but interestingly Helene Darroze’s restaurant in Paris was demoted to one star; perhaps she has been stretched too thin with her London venture? Additionally, Les Crayeres in Champagne lost both stars, as did Les Ambassadeurs (whose chef left recently). Au Crocodile in Strasbourg went down from two to one star, as did La Villa in Calvi.
There are now 77 two star restaurants in France, and 455 with one star (of which 45 are newly awarded this year).
Again Michelin has struggled to keep its list secret this year. The news of the new 3 star place was actually leaked as long ago as the 17th January in France Soir (hat tip to SR for sending me this some weeks ago). Oddly this article identified four new two star places correctly, but did not get the full set.
The full list of three star establishments is here, while a location map of all of them can be found here.