Two years after the death of renowned French chef Paul Bocuse, the Michelin Guide has stripped his flagship restaurant of the coveted three-star ranking it held for half a century, prompting anger and dismay from his culinary peers. The Auberge du Pont de Collonges, near food-obsessed Lyon in southeast France, was the oldest three-starred restaurant in the world, having held the accolade since 1965. The Michelin Guide told AFP on Friday that the establishment "remained excellent but no longer at the level of three stars" and will have only two in the 2020 edition of the famous red book dubbed the "bible" of French cuisine.
"Michelin stars have to be earned, not inherited," Michelin Guide boss Gwendal Poullennec told RTL broadcaster.
Bocuse's family and restaurant team said they were "upset" by the decision, and celebrity chef Marc Veyrat, who recently sued the Michelin Guide over a lost third star, described the move as "pathetic". The Bocuse d'Or organisation, which manages the annual cooking competition he created, also greeted the announcement with "sadness" and expressed its "unwavering support" for the restaurant.
"Monsieur Paul", as Bocuse was known, died aged 91 on January 20, 2018, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
Nicknamed the "pope" of French cuisine, he was one of the country's most celebrated chefs, helping shake up the food world in the 1970s with the lighter fare of the Nouvelle Cuisine revolution, and introduce the notion of culinary celebrity. Even before Bocuse's death, some critics had commented that the restaurant was no longer quite up to scratch.
But Michelin's decision, a year after controversially stripping Veyrat of his third star, immediately stirred discontent.