The world’s oldest restaurant with Michelin stars, Georges Blanc, lost his third star, according to French media reports.
Georges Blanc, an 82-year-old French chef, in charge of a restaurant in Southeast France, told the AFP news agency that they “didn’t expect”.
“We’ll make two stars … Maybe we’ll be less elitist and a little more approachable.”
With the headquarters in the city of Vonnas outside the French city of Lyon, the restaurant earned its first star in 1929 under Georges’s grandmother, Élisa Blanc, and has since held at least one star of a wounded restaurant assessment guide.
Georges took over the restaurant in 1964. Together with his mother Paulette, before taking over complete control of only 25 years ago four years later.
He won the third Michelin star for the 1981 institution, and all three have been – so far.
This means that the octogenous chef – who won the murder of national awards, including the French Legion of Honor – lived more of his life with three Michelin stars than without.
Gwendal Poulenec, director of Michelin Guide, said AFP trying to “reflect the evolution of the restaurant’s quality on our ladder.”
But he also praised Mr. Blanc. “Indeed, under his leadership, what was once a family inn has experienced a new flourishing to become this gourmet village, which is today a real gastronomic destination,” he said.
The guide, he added, “he will continue to follow this restaurant with the same kindness, the same rigor” in the years ahead.
In addition to its institution of the same name, Mr. Blanc holds several other restaurants, hotels and food shops as well as an inn.
Michelin, a French tire manufacturer, has made a guide for a restaurant since 1900, and Star System presented in 1926.
Initially, they wrote one as a means of stimulating driving and thus demand for car tires.
Michelin will hold his annual Star Award ceremony at the end of this month.
