Michelin Guide defends awarding stars to top chefs during Covid pandemic

France's Michelin Guide for restaurants awarded its prestigious stars to top chefs at an annual ceremony on Monday, defending its decision to maintain the awards, which critics say can make or break a chef's career, at a time health restrictions are forcing restaurants to close. 

The awards for the 2021 Michelin Guide for France were based on reviews of restaurants that have spent much of the past year completely closed by some of Europe's strictest lockdown measures. 

French restaurants were closed for all but take-away from mid March to early May last year and faced growing restrictions through the summer and autumn that left them closed nationwide by late October. 

The guide said its anonymous reviews were squeezed into a reduced six-month period between lockdowns. 

“It's an important decision to support the profession despite the context, and maybe even because of the context. It was necessary to maintain these announcements,” Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the guides told AFP Agency.

“It's an occasion to shine a spotlight on all these talents, to encourage them and to keep restaurant patrons motivated” until the crisis ends, he said. 

Criticised for giving awards

Michelin's decision to go ahead with the annual awards with the same criteria as any other year put it at odds with some of its counterparts. 

Britain's 50 Best cancelled its awards outright, while France's Gault&Millau considered innovation and solidarity in their awards and La Liste gave awards based on how chefs adapted to the restrictions. 

Restaurant critic Emmanuel Rubin questioned whether the restrictions means there even needed to be a 2021 edition of the Michelin Guide, which he criticised for “the opacity of the method and conditions” of anonymous reviews in newspaper Le Figaro. 

Poullennec said reviewers cancelled summer holidays in order to work on the guide between lockdowns. 

Receiving a Michelin star can catapult a chef to stardom, but stars also have to be maintained, and sometimes the guide's anonymous reviewers decide to demote a restaurant. 

This system led chef Marc Veyrant to unsuccessfully sue the guide after claiming the loss of a star forced him to close his restaurant in 2019. 

Michelin had promised no three-star chefs would be demoted this year, owing to the health crisis, with restaurants looking likely to remain closed for several weeks, if not months. 

Any stars removed were for restaurants that had closed or changed dining concepts. 

Virtual awards from the Eiffel Tower

The prestigious guide adapted its own 30th annual ceremony to the Covid pandemic, cancelling a gala planned in the town of Cognac in southwestern France for a virtual ceremony livestreamed from the Jules Verne restaurant on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower.

The year's only new three-star chef was Alexandre Mazzia, whose Marseille restaraurant AM has garnered many accolades since it opened in 2014. 

A pair of two-star chefs were honoured: Top Chef judge Hélène Darroze, operating her restaurant Marsan on the rue d'Assas in Paris, and to Cédric and Christelle Deckert, owners of La Marise in Laubach in eastern France. 

Fifty-four first stars were announced in all, including for former Top Chef candidate Mory Sacko received a first star based on anonymous reviews of his Parisian restaurant MoSuke. 

(with newswires)