PARIS (AFP) — France's revered Michelin food bible dishes out its coveted stars this week, crowning the ocean fare of a Marseille eatery, but striking a two-century old citadel of French cuisine, the Grand Vefour in Paris, from its top table.
Gerald Passedat, whose seafront restaurant Le Petit Nice boasts fans including Iggy Pop and Sting, is the only new three-star chef in the 2008 Michelin Red Guide for France, which hits the shelves on Thursday.
Passedat, who will turn 48 on March 24, is the third generation chef at the helm of the restaurant, a white villa with sparkling views of the deep blue. His father won a first prize star in 1979 and a second in 1981.
He took over the kitchens of Le Petit Nice in 1990, but it took a decade of experimenting with avant-garde cuisine before he decided to make the Mediterranean his "vegetable-garden", he told AFP.
"I realised that the sea was my destiny. It was right there in front of me and I hadn't seen it," said the chef, who turned to small local fishermen as suppliers, rediscovering long-forgotten ocean species.
Passedat told AFP he felt "a great joy and a certain pride" to be admitted to the lofty three-star club, but insisted "the star is not an end in itself".
"I will use it as a creative springboard. It's a beginning," he said, adding the Red Guide had rewarded an "honest cuisine, a cuisine of taste, of the sea, of the Mediterranean."
Mediterranean fish such as tub gurnard, rockling, dentex and others are the backbone of Passedat's cuisine, notably in his version of the local fish-soup "bouillabaisse".
Le Petit Nice is the first restaurant in Marseille, France's second city, to be given Michelin's top marks.
For the third year in a row the Michelin took aim at a great Paris institution, this time striking the Grand Vefour, a regular haunt of Paris politicians and artists near the Louvre, from its elite three-star club.
Founded around 1785, the Grand Vefour has been struggling to hold rank since the departure of its late three-star chef Raymond Oliver in 1983. His successor Guy Martin, 50, won back a third star in 2000, only to lose it again this year.
Le Grand Vefour boasts one of Paris' most spectacular dinner decors: a festival of wood-panelling and gold, gilded mirrors, stucco and Pompei-like frescoes, overlooking the tranquil gardens of the Palais Royal.
But Jean-Luc Naret, head of the Michelin guide, said his "inspectors have not been finding three stars in Guy Martin's plate for the past 18 months".
"Every chef knows exactly what takes place in his kitchens. There is always a good reason for losing a star."
Fellow Parisian institution Taillevent lost its third star last year, while the Tour d'Argent -- considered France's oldest table -- was downgraded to a humble one star in 2006.
Eight French restaurants were admitted into the two-star club, including L'Atelier (The Workshop), run by chef Joel Robuchon in Paris' seventh district -- where diners eat standing at the bar.
The distinction gives Robuchon 18 stars for his various restaurants around the world -- ahead of 14 for fellow Frenchman Alain Ducasse.
Among the 52 new one-star restaurants, the Italian Enrico Bernardo -- crowned the world's best sommelier in 2004 -- was singled out for his Paris table Il Vino, also in the seventh.
Other France-based foreign chefs rewarded by Michelin include the Finn Journi Tourmanen, for his Atelier du Gout in Nice, and a small Japanese table in Paris, Aida.
The Michelin Red Guide for France lists 3,569 restaurants, of which 26 have three stars, 68 have two and 435 have one.
Michelin publishes Red Guides for more than 20 destinations worldwide, from Italy, Spain and Germany to New York and Los Angeles. Its first Asian guide, covering Tokyo, sold out within two days when it hit the shelves in November.
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