Business still booming at Marc Veyrat’s restaurant despite it losing one of its three stars

One of France’s leading chefs has lost his court case against the Michelin Guide after it downgraded his restaurant from three to two stars.

In a case that became known as Cheddargate, Marc Veyrat sued the respected guide claiming it had made a “profoundly offensive” suggestion that he had used the English cheese in one of his signature soufflé dishes.

He said it was a matter of honour and demanded evidence that the “incompetent” Michelin inspector had even dined at his restaurant, and that they hand over their notes.

Michelin accused Veyrat of behaving like a “narcissistic diva” suffering from “pathological egotism”.

Veyrat’s restaurant La Maison des Bois, at Manigod, 1,800m up in the Alps in Haute-Savoie, was downgraded in January 2019, a year after Michelin had awarded it the highest ranking of three stars.

Veyrat, 69, said he learned of the downgrade only when he read the guide and it left his kitchen staff in tears and threw him into a profound depression lasting several months. He told France 2 television it was the most terrible thing to have happened to him. “It’s worse than the loss of my parents, worse than anything,” he said.

He claimed the anonymous inspector mistakenly thought he had used English cheddar instead of French reblochon, beaufort and tomme cheese in a soufflé, when in fact the yellow colour was from saffron.

At a hearing in November, he asked the court to order Michelin to hand over inspectors’ bills and judging notes to discover when they had eaten in the restaurant and how they had come to their decisions – one of the biggest trade secrets in the restaurant business.

The chef argued he had the right to know in detail the judging criteria used to evaluate restaurants and how Michelin inspectors were trained. He demanded a symbolic €1 in damages.

His lawyer, Emmanuel Ravanas, said the chef was not seeking to ban criticism. “We just want to verify the criteria that exist and how they are applied,” he told the court hearing.

On the other side, the Michelin guide sought €30,000 in costs and compensation. “The court is not there to protect men’s vanity,” the guide’s barrister, Richard Malka, said at the opening of the legal case. Malka said Veyrat’s lawsuit flew in the face of reason and basic constitutional rights of freedom of expression.

“Mr Veyrat wants France to abandon the principle that restaurant critics should have the freedom to have an opinion because his restaurant has two stars rather than three; because La Maison des Bois is judged to be just excellent rather than brilliant,” Malka told AFP.

Veyrat, recognised in France for his trademark wide-brimmed black savoyard hat and smokey glasses, considered that gaining his third Michelin star in 2018 marked his comeback after he was forced to give up cooking for several years following a skiing accident and a 2015 fire at La Maison des Bois.

The chef has made his name specialising in traditional dishes using wild herbs collected from around his restaurants and “molecular gastronomy”, chemistry-inspired recipes.

Veyrat said he had been “dishonoured” by the guide. “The fact they took my virtual scallops to be real scallops when they were made from a base of burbot livers from Lake Geneva shows a lack of competence,” he said.

In its ruling, the court at Nanterre, outside Paris, said the chef had produced not “a single piece of evidence” to show any real harm or damage caused to the restaurant.

Veyrat admitted business at La Maison des Bois – where the dégustation menus cost €295 or €395 – was booming. “I don’t really need them,” he said of the guide, adding: “At this rate I wish they’d take away all my stars.”

Days before the hearing, the rival Gault & Millau guide named Veyrat one of the 10 “immortals” of haute cuisine alongside the likes of Alain Ducasse and Guy Savoy.