格下げされた仏著名シェフがミシュランを提訴、「覆面審査員がチーズを誤解」

【ナンテールＡＦＰ＝時事】レストラン格付け本「ミシュランガイド」で最高ランクの三つ星から二つ星に格下げされたフランスの著名シェフ、マルク・ベイラ氏（69）が24日、ミシュランを訴えた。同氏は特に自家製チーズスフレをめぐり、ミシュランの覆面調査員が適正な評価をしなかったと非難している。（写真は仏著名シェフのマルク・ベイラ氏。ミシュランガイドの授賞式で）
　ベイラ氏はラジオ局フランス・アンテルの放送で「名誉を奪われた。チームのメンバーは涙を流していた。ある夜、何の通告も、何の書面もなく『これでもう終わりだ』と伝えるために電話させたのだ」と訴えた。
　ベイラ氏がフランス・アルプスで経営するレストラン「ラ・メゾン・デ・ボワ」は今年１月、三つ星から二つ星に格下げされた。三つ星に返り咲いてから、わずか１年後のことだった。
　ベイラ氏は、この格下げによってうつ病にかかったと主張。怒った同氏はさらにミシュランガイドへの掲載中止を求めたが、ミシュラン側はこの要請を受け入れなかった。
　ベイラ氏はミシュランの覆面調査員が、地元産のルブロションやボーフォール、トムといったチーズを使った同店のチーズスフレに英国産チェダーチーズが入っていると誤解したと非難。「私はサフランを入れている。ここに来た調査員の男性は、色が黄色だったためチェダーチーズだと思ったのだ。これが君たちの言う適材適所か？単におかしいだけだ」と怒りをあらわにした。
　ベイラ氏の弁護士、エマニュエル・ラバナス氏は２３日午後、ＡＦＰの取材に応じ、格下げを決定した「正確な理由を明らかにする」文書を提出するよう、裁判所がミシュランに命じることをベイラ氏は願っていると述べた。審問はパリ西郊のナンテールで１１月２７日に開かれるという。
　地元オートサボア県でレストランを経営するベイラ氏は、店の周辺で収穫したハーブを活用した「ボタニカルクッキング」で名声を得た。かつては他のレストランで三つ星を獲得していたが、１０年前にスキー事故で料理を諦めざるを得なくなった。しかし昨年「ラ・メゾン・デ・ボワ」で三つ星を再獲得し、返り咲きを果たしたところだった。
　ミシュランは２３日、「ベイラ氏の失望は理解できる。彼の要求について慎重に検討し、冷静に回答する」と発表した。
　ミシュランガイドをめぐってはここ数年、著名シェフの自殺が相次ぐなどしたことから、料理界で最高の評価を得るためのすさまじい努力と、ミシュランで格下げされた場合の経済的な打撃に焦点が当てられている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/09/26-08:27）

Celebrity French chef Marc Veyrat said Tuesday that he has sued the famed Michelin guide after inspectors stripped his restaurant of its coveted third star, claiming they had botched their evaluation, in particular over a cheese souffle.
I've been dishonoured, I saw my team in tears... to have them call you one evening without warning, without anything written down, without anything, to say 'That's it, it's over', Veyrat told France Inter radio on Tuesday.
Veyrat's La Maison des Bois restaurant in the French Alps was demoted to two stars from the maximum three last January, just a year after he secured the industry's highest accolade.
He said the move plunged him into depression, and the furious chef later demanded that he be removed from the vaunted red guides -- in vain.
He claims the downgrade came after a Michelin inspector mistakenly thought he had adulterated a cheese souffle with English Cheddar, instead of using France's Reblochon, Beaufort and Tomme varieties.
I put saffron in it, and the gentleman who came thought it was cheddar because it was yellow. That's what you call knowledge of a place? It's just crazy, Veyrat told France Inter.
His lawyer Emmanuel Ravanas had told AFP late Monday that Veyrat hopes the court will force Michelin to hand over documents to clarify the exact reasons justifying its decision.
He said a court hearing has been set for November 27 in Nanterre, just west of Paris.
For decades, Marc Veyrat has been used to having his cooking graded, evaluated and compared, and he knows quite well that you don't own a star for life... He accepts it all, as long as the criticism is accurate, Ravanas said.
- Skiing accident -
Veyrat, 69, made his name with his so-called botanical cooking, employing the wild herbs gathered around his restaurants in his native Haute Savoie region.
Earlier this year the chef, who is instantly recognisable in France for his signature wide-brimmed black Savoyard hat and smoke-tinted glasses, had tried to get Michelin to hand over the inspector notes or the bills proving they had indeed dined at his establishment.
He also claimed that a new generation of editors at the head of the guide were trying to make their names by attacking the pillars of French cuisine.
But in a statement Monday, Michelin said it understands the disappointment for Mr Veyrat, whose talent no one contests, even if we regret his unreasonable persistance with his accusations.
Our first duty is to tell consumers why we have changed our recommendation. We will carefully study his demands and respond calmly, it said.
Veyrat's recovery of a third star for La Maison du Bois in 2018 capped a comeback after he was forced to give up cooking a decade ago after a serious skiing accident.
He had previously won three stars for two other restaurants.
The intense strains of reaching cooking's highest spheres -- and the financial impacts of losing Michelin stars -- have been highlighted in recent years by the suicides of several top chefs.
French chef Bernard Loiseau shot himself in 2003 after a newspaper hinted that his restaurant was about to lose its three-star status.
And Benoit Violier ended his life in 2016 just months after his Swiss restaurant was named the best in the world in the La Liste ranking.