Mauling the Michelin myth

There was a slot on this morning's Today programme about Alain Senderens decision to return the three Michelin stars for his Paris restaurant, Lucas Carton.  Basically, he's peed off at having to kowtow to Michelin requirements which he is seeing as increasingly irrelevant.  Consequently, he's shutting down the restaurant and reopening it as traditional bistro.

I've always disliked the more poncy element to restaurants that hanker after Michelin stars and it seems slightly pointless to me to serve food that just ticks boxes.  Senderens seems to have decided he'd prefer to cook the food he wants rather than the food he's supposed to - a laudable intention.

Michelin has rather haughtily pointed out that you can't return stars because they are in Michelin's gift and they can proffer or remove them as they see fit.  Michelin has also said that it will keep sending inspectors to Lucas Carton and so inevitably there will be a big splash if/when it loses its stars.  The high regard that Michelin continues to be held in does seem a bit odd.  Especially when the opportunity is out there for more democratic methods to rank restaurants, egullet being a good example.  Superchef also raises the prospect of whether Senderens' move could mean another shift in the food we eat at restaurants, in the same way that he led the charge on nouvelle cuisine.  Let's just hope that if Superchef is right, there'll be more food on our plates this time round.