Monday March 18, in Tours, the 2024 Michelin Guide ceremony took place. A rather rich vintage on paper since 62 new macarons were awarded, including 52 one star and 8 two stars, including the Jules Verne perched on the Eiffel Tower or the confidential restaurant of Sylvestre Wahid in Courchevel, which we would like to see set up elsewhere between two winter seasons.
On the highest step of the podium, two chefs have joined the very exclusive club of three stars: Jérôme Banctel for the Gabriel in Paris and Fabien Ferré for the Table du Castellet in the Var.
With 639 starred restaurants and 30 three-star restaurants, France confirms the great vitality of its gastronomy. If the green star, rewarding eco-responsible cuisine, has come to reward 9 new restaurants, it is difficult not to wonder why sustainable commitment is not a prerequisite for any reward… And since we are at the suggestions , why not a future prize for the best working conditions in the kitchen?
Fabien Ferré, new three-star chef for Table du Castellet.
© Press
The second will be the first
If the talent, experience, precision and lovely risk-taking of Jérome Banctel – cooking with lime or this daring land-sea squid in tagliatelle and duck juice – had convinced gourmets for several years, the surprise was total for Fabien Ferré, former right-hand man of Christophe Bacquié at Table du Castellet, who won the supreme award for his first year as executive chef. This 35-year-old Burgundian, who fell in love with Provence over the past decade alongside Christophe Bacquié (himself double-starred this March 18 for Le Mas des Eydins, in Bonnieux), thus becomes the youngest chef to complete all the stages at once. Under the influence of emotion, this young man, “more gifted at cooking than at speeches” and impatient to celebrate this moment with his teams, invited his mentor to join him on stage, while Jérome Banctel underlined, once again, the happiness of being supported from the start by Michel Reybier, owner of La Réserve Paris, and so well surrounded by Linh Nguyen who accompanies him on a daily basis in his research. Among his daily accomplices, there is also the amazing Alexandre Augé in the dining room and Gaëtan Lacoste, the maestro of agreements that we have not finished hearing about. On the sommelier side, Magali Delalex (La Table de l'Ours in Val d'Isère) and Xavier Tuizat for the Hôtel de Crillon won the title of Best Sommelier. New champions of hospitality, Sandrine Deley Favario for the excellent Auberge de Montmin in Talloires-Montmin and Serge Schaal for La Fourchette des Ducs in Obernai.
Jérome Banctel has just won three stars for the restaurant Le Gabriel at La Réserve Paris.
© Julie Limont
Sweet tooths will note the names of the winners of the Passion Dessert prize, such as that of Aurora Storari at Hémicycle (Paris, recently highlighted in the pages of ELLE à Table) but also the astonishing Julieta Canavate at Ceto (Roquebrune- Cap-Martin), Patrick Mesiano for Aux Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac (Monaco), Benoit Goulard at Mont Blanc Restaurant & Goûter (Hauteluce), Loïc Colliau and François Luciano at La Table du Castellet, Max Martin at Pré Catelan (Paris 16th), Pascal Hainigue at Auberge de l'Ill (Illhaeusern) or Pierre-Jean Quinonero for Le Cap in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
Are women everywhere?
“Still so white, still so masculine.” This is in essence what the foreign media highlighted last night during the ceremony revealing the new starred restaurants in the 2024 Michelin Guide. Despite the screening of a lovely video by Vérane Frédiani (author and director of the documentary film “In Search of Women Cheffes » in 2017), which underlined with a lot of inspiring testimonies that in the world of gastronomy, female chefs were everywhere, it is clear that they are still included in the new list where only six were distinguished: Eugénie Béziat, the new chef of the Ritz, and the chef duo Manon Fleury and Laurène Barjoux for the Datil restaurant in Paris. In the provinces, three duos were rewarded Florencia Montes and Lorenzo Ragni, for the delightful ONICE in Nice, Adeline Lesage with Marc-Antoine Lesage in Retz for Nacre, and Émilie and Thomas Roussey for the Moulin de Cambelong in Conques-en-Rouergue.
We can only deplore, once again, that the Red Guide did not stay in Provence to reward Fanny Rey and Jonathan Wahid at the Auberge de Saint-Rémy. Among others.
