Michelin Dishes Out Awards
It was business as usual at Le Cinq yesterday. For starters you could order cream of watercress soup with Sevruga caviar for 105 euros (£70).
It was business as usual at Le Cinq yesterday. For starters you could order cream of watercress soup with Sevruga caviar for 105 euroes (£70). The main courses included turbot roasted with pine needles, taleggio cheese and romaine lettuce leaves for €68.
Then if the appetite (and wallet) could bear it, your luncheon at the prestigious eatery of the unspeakably luxurious George V hotel off the Champs-Elysées could have been topped off with comice pear and puff pastry with prunes and Jamaican pepper ice-cream for a mere 18 euros.
Few diners were opting for the 190 euro eight-course gourmet dégustation menu, a hotel spokeswoman said, which was a shame because the chef, Philippe Legendre, had something to celebrate: he had just won his coveted third star from the French foodies' bible, the Michelin Red Guide.
Mr Legendre, 44, joined the elite club of 23 three-star restaurants in France (to be strictly accurate, he rejoined it, having held the ultimate gastronomic accolade for nine years at the rival Taillevent restaurant).
He said that his promotion was a reward for his whole team, which numbers an awesome 70 people. "Cooking, for me, is based on emotion and teamwork," he said.
Also knocking back the bubbly were Alain Ducasse, the owner of the Louis XV in Monaco, and his principal cuisinier Franck Cerrutti, who regained the third star they lost last year in what Le Figaro's food critic called an "unfair and incomprehensible gesture".
Mr Ducasse, who with TV appearances, product endorsements and restaurants around the globe can only be described as a one-man haute cuisine industry, also retained three stars for his Paris flagship hangout at the Plaza Athéenée hotel, making him the only chef in France to hold six of the precious symbols.
The 2003 edition of the Red Guide does not go on sale until February 28, but Michelin released the main details -so important to a chef's career that at least one has committed suicide on losing a star - yesterday, after Le Figaro leaked most of them.
In total, 29 chefs gained a first or additional star, while 43 were docked one.
Then if the appetite (and wallet) could bear it, your luncheon at the prestigious eatery of the unspeakably luxurious George V hotel off the Champs-Elysées could have been topped off with comice pear and puff pastry with prunes and Jamaican pepper ice-cream for a mere 18 euros.
Few diners were opting for the 190 euro eight-course gourmet dégustation menu, a hotel spokeswoman said, which was a shame because the chef, Philippe Legendre, had something to celebrate: he had just won his coveted third star from the French foodies' bible, the Michelin Red Guide.
Mr Legendre, 44, joined the elite club of 23 three-star restaurants in France (to be strictly accurate, he rejoined it, having held the ultimate gastronomic accolade for nine years at the rival Taillevent restaurant).
He said that his promotion was a reward for his whole team, which numbers an awesome 70 people. "Cooking, for me, is based on emotion and teamwork," he said.
Also knocking back the bubbly were Alain Ducasse, the owner of the Louis XV in Monaco, and his principal cuisinier Franck Cerrutti, who regained the third star they lost last year in what Le Figaro's food critic called an "unfair and incomprehensible gesture".
Mr Ducasse, who with TV appearances, product endorsements and restaurants around the globe can only be described as a one-man haute cuisine industry, also retained three stars for his Paris flagship hangout at the Plaza Athéenée hotel, making him the only chef in France to hold six of the precious symbols.
The 2003 edition of the Red Guide does not go on sale until February 28, but Michelin released the main details -so important to a chef's career that at least one has committed suicide on losing a star - yesterday, after Le Figaro leaked most of them.
In total, 29 chefs gained a first or additional star, while 43 were docked one.
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