Michelin has unveiled the latest selection of restaurants in the 2018 MICHELIN Guide France, featuring a total of 621 starred establishments, including 57 new entrants.
Just a stone’s throw from the Castellet circuit in the heart of Provence, ‘Restaurant Christophe Bacquié’ receives 3 stars this year in the new Michelin Guide selection. Chef Christophe Bacquié, ‘Meilleur Ouvrier de France’ 2014, offers a truly refined selection of dishes at his restaurant at Hotel du Castellet, including his modern take on aioli, vegetables from the local farmers’ market and Mediterranean octopus. Michael Ellis, International Director of the Michelin Guides comments, “A real ode to the produce found in his region, Christophe Bacquié now offers very high-flying cuisine: vibrant with emotions, each dish creates a memory; a testimony to his creative talent, his perfect technical skills and maturity.”
‘La Maison des Bois’ by Chef Marc Veyrat, in Manigod, Haute-Savoie, also receives the distinction of 3 stars in the Michelin Guide. At his chalet, perched at an altitude of 1650 meters, Chef Marc Veyrat has created an almost self-sufficient place by making use of local wild produce – thereby elevating the cuisine. Says Ellis, “As a passionate botanist, Marc Veyrat enhances the Savoyard herbs and flowers he gathers from the wild, and combines creativity, authenticity, and refinement to offer customers an unforgettable experience.”
The 2018 selection also has five new 2-star restaurants, including ‘Au 14 Février’ in Saint-Amour, a restaurant headed by chef Masafumi Hamano who blends French and Japanese flavours; ‘L’Hostellerie Jérôme’ in La Turbie where chef Bruno Cirino and his wife, who both love beautiful produce, offer particularly tasty southern cuisine that has great character; ‘L’Auberge du Père Bise,’ a true institution moored on the shores of Lake Annecy in Talloires that reflects France’s gastronomic heritage, where chef Jean Sulpice showcases the riches of the Savoyard territory through his honest inventive cuisine.
Also distinguished with two stars this year is Chef Takao Takano’s eponymous restaurant in Lyon, which stands out with subtle compositions designed to respect the flavors, and ‘Flaveur,’ in Nice, where brothers Gaël and Mickaël Tourteaux combine their talents to offer dishes that marry carefully considered ingredients with different textures and delicate execution.
The Michelin Star Family is also joined by 50 new one-star restaurants – restaurants driven by the talent, ambition, and passion of chefs and their teams who find ways of offering their customers gastronomic excellence day after day. Among these talents are notably Anthony Lumet for his restaurant ‘Le Pousse Pied’ in La Tranche-sur-Mer, and Guillaume Mombroisse, chef-proprietor of ‘Sept’ in Toulouse. They are the youngest chefs in this new selection with a first star for their respective establishments at the age of just 27.
The Michelin Guide 2018 selection shows how Paris attracts chefs from around the world who want to open their own restaurants in France’s capital. For example, ‘Pertinence,’ where Ryunosuke Naito and his wife Kwen Liew offer French cuisine using Japanese techniques; ‘Montee,’ the restaurant of chef Takayuki Nameura from Kobe, Japan; ‘Alan Geaam,’ where self-taught chef Alan Geaam gives his dishes a touch of his motherland Lebanon; ‘Copenhague,’ the Danish gourmet restaurant headed by chef Andreas Moller on the Champs Elysees located on the first floor of the Maison du Danemark; ‘Mavrommatis,’ where Andréas Mavrommatis offers delicious Greek/ Mediterranean cuisine in the heart of Paris’ 5th arrondissement; and ‘Comice,’ designed by Canadian chef Noam Gedalof and his companion Etheliya Havanova at the front of house and sommelier.
As the inspectors traveled all over France, they also noticed that chefs and their teams are increasingly focusing on offering quality food at even more reasonable prices, with short menus using the produce from local producers. This is the approach taken in several newly-starred restaurants such as ‘L’Auberge de la Tour’ in Marcoles in Cantal, where chef Renaud Darmanin offers a gastronomic menu for 22 euros; ‘Le Marcq,’ in Marcqen-Baroeul near Lille where chef Abdelker Belfatmi serves a menu at 38 euros; ‘Intuition’ in Saint-Lô, Normandy, and ‘La Merise’ in Laubach, Alsace. Finally, in Corsica, two restaurants each receive one star this year: ‘U Santa Marina,’ in Porto-Vecchio, a restaurant where you can enjoy delicious Mediterranean cuisine, and ‘La Table de la Ferme’ in Sartene in the Domaine de Murtoli.
See the full list of newly starred restaurants below.
Three Stars
La Maison des Bois (Manigod)
Castellet (Va)
Two Stars
Au 14 Février (St-Amour-Bellevue),
Enfin Flaveur (Nice)
Hostellerie Jérôme (La Turbie)
Jean Sulpice (Talloires)
Takao Takano (Lyon)
One Star
Alan Geaam (Paris)
Auberge de la Tour (Marcolès)
Auberge Grand’Maison (Mûr-de-Bretagne)
Chapelle St-Martin (Limoges)
Château de Cordeillan-Bages (Pauillac)
Château de Courban (Courban)
Ima (Rennes)
Comice (Paris)
Emporio Armani Caffè (Paris)
Etude (Paris)
Garopapilles et Le Quatrième Mur (Bordeaux)
Intuition (Saint-Lô)
Jean Chauvel (Boulogne-Billancourt)
Jérôme Feck (Châlons-en- Champagne
Ken Kawasaki (Paris)
La Merise (Laubach)
L’Almandin (St-Cyprien)
La Promenade (Verfeil)
L’Arcane (Paris)
La Table de la Ferme (Sartène, Corse)
L’Atelier Yssoirien (Issoire)
l’Auberge de Bagatelle (Le Mans)
Le Barbacane (Carcassonne)
Le Chateaubriand (Paris)
L’Ecrin (Paris)
Le Domaine de la Corniche (Rolleboise).
Le Grand Cap (Leucate)
Le Jasmin (Villeneuve-sur-Lot)
Le Marcq (Marcq-en-Barœul)
L’Émulsion (Bourgoin-Jallieu)
L’Essentiel (Deauville)
Les Fresques (Évian)
Le Quincangrogne (Dampmart)
L’Hysope (La Rochelle)
Le Pousse-Pied (Tranche-sur-Mer)
L’O des Vignes (Fuissé)
Loiseau Rive Gauche (Paris)
Lou Cigalon-Maison Martin (Valbonne)
Louison (Aix-en-Pce)
Mavrommatis (Paris)
Montée (Paris)
Pertinence (Paris)
Quinsou (Paris)
SEPT (Toulouse)
Table – Bruno Verjus (Paris)
Table de Manville (Baux-de-Pce)
Transparence ‘La Table de Patrick Fréchin’ (Nancy)
U Santa Marina (Porto-Vecchio, Corse)
Published 2018.02.06
