Big name British chef Gordon Ramsay's Trianon restaurant at Versailles was downgraded by the country's most prestigious gastronomic guide on Monday, dropping to just one star.
However, the Brit broke even as he picked up a star at his Bordeaux restaurant Le Pressoir d'Argent.
Ramsay took to Twitter to promise to buy his team some bubbly- after service of course.
Bravo guys and have a glass of bubbly on me after service Gx https://t.co/PPWxjFSXOQ
— Gordon Ramsay (@GordonRamsay) February 1, 2016
Elsewhere, French superchef Alain Ducasse, had a similar experience to Ramsay after earning a third Michelin star for his restaurant at Paris's Plaza Athenee hotel but he too lost one at the equally opulent Le Meurice.
The Plaza Athenee joins Le Cinq, where Christian Le Squer is the head chef, as the only two eateries to enter three-star territory this year, as the industry reeled after the apparent suicide on Sunday of top French chef Benoit Violier.
“Alain Ducasse took a brave decision to come up with a style of cooking based around the idea of 'naturalness'” at the Plaza Athenee, the guide's US-born international director Michael Ellis said.
“And Christian Le Squer is a real virtuoso. Every dish by Christian Le Squer is a real work of art, a shining example of what French gastronomy does best,” he added.
Meals at the Plaza Athenee, which is on Rue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, will set diners back anywhere between €210 and €380.
The interior of the Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris. Photo: Pierre Monetta
There's a wider price scale at Le Cinq, on Avenue George V in the eighth, with meals ranging from €110 to €400.
The guide also promoted ten restaurants into the two-star category (five of which were in Paris), and 42 restaurants around France up to one star.
The 10 new two star restaurants include five in Paris: Paris 7e Sylvestre (Sylvestre Wahid), Paris 8e Le Gabriel (Jérôme Banctel), Paris 8e Le Grand Restaurant – Jean-François Piège, Paris 16e L’Abeille (Christophe Moret), Paris 16e Histoires (Mathieu Pacaud).
France now boasts 600 restaurants with Michelin stars, 26 of which are three-starred. A further 82 have two stars, and 492 have one star.
Ellis said the guide's feared army of anonymous inspectors notorious for punishing the slightest slippage in its exacting standards, had found French gastronomy to be in rude good health.
Paris – long criticized for the quality and value for money of its cuisine in comparison to the provinces – has made particular progress, he claimed.
“Of the 380 tables that have entered the guide for the first time, 100 are in Paris. It is proof that the city is more than ever a place where chefs want to cook,” he said.
The youngest new entry into the hallowed guide was 23-year-old Angelo Ferrigno, chef of the Maison des Cariatides at Dijon in eastern France.
While some call the Michelin guide the oracle of the culinary world, not everyone respects the starred ratings.
Meg Zimbeck of the respected Paris By Mouth food blog slammed the entire process, after shelling out more than €7,000 to review all the capital's three-star venues.
In fact, she told The Local last year that diners should steer well clear of the “overblown and least exciting” eateries.
A full list of Paris's three-star Michelin restaurants
Pierre Gagnaire – 8th
Le Cinq – 8th
Plaza Athenee – 8th
Epicure au Bristol – 8th
Le Pré Catelan – 16th
Guy Savoy – 17th
Ledoyen – 8th
L'Ambroisie – 4th
Astrance – 16th
Arpège – 7th
Epicure au Bristol – 8th
Le Pré Catelan – 16th
Guy Savoy – 17th
Ledoyen – 8th
L'Ambroisie – 4th
Astrance – 16th
Arpège – 7th
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