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Guy Savoy: An Open Letter to Michelin
Dear Michelin directors and inspectors,
Every spring I wait eagerly for your annual judgment
on the restaurants of France, a territory I have covered
closely and passionately for the past 21 years. For
at least the past 10 years, I have waited with fingers
crossed, in hopes that you would finally come to your
senses and anoint chef Guy Savoy with his much deserved
third star. What on earth are you waiting for?
Maybe there is something you are not getting, or have
not noticed, so let me refresh your memory and perhaps
fill in the blanks for you. I first met Guy Savoy in
1980, when he was part of a band of up and coming kid
chefs, among them Alain Dutournier and Joel Robuchon.
It was a muddled time of nouvelle cuisine, with chefs
opening restaurants on the knowledge of 10 dishes, and
you could pretty much predict you would eat the same
food all over. But it was clear then that chefs such
as Savoy, Dutournier, and Robuchon were not one-season
wonders, but were here to stay.
Back then, Guy worked in a tiny kitchen in a small
restaurant that bore his name, on the Rue Duret in the
16th arrondissement. He had one, maybe two assistants,
and quickly became known for a style of cooking that
was light, aesthetically appealing, and fashioned from
the ingredients he loved the best. He quickly received
his first merited Michelin star. Most of all, he was
famed for his signature green color, his astute use
of fresh herbs and dishes filled with an avalanche of
vegetables. Today that may not sound like much, but
remember, those were the days of single slices of kiwi
and crazy salads of foie gras and green beans. Vegetables
were still considered garnishes back then, not worthy
of the star billing that Savoy was already giving them.
In 1987, when Gilbert and Maguy le Coze closed their
famed Le Bernardin to devote themselves to their New
York restaurant of the same name, Guy happily took over
the large and spacious dining room near the Arc de Triomphe,
on Rue Troyon. Here, he continued to grow and grow and
grow, and astonish us with truly original and unusual
modern fare. Many of his signature dishes can still
be found there today: Such as his brilliant oysters
en nage glacée, cooked in their own juices and
turned into a soothing jelly. Or the incomparable artichoke
soup, laced with fresh black truffles and perfect slim
slices of Parmesan, a soup that is ever fragrant, satisfying,
and memorable. And no cook has ever served lentils so
well: Savoy cleverly pairs those earthy, peppery, flinty
little beans with the fresh French black truffle, truly
the earth tasting like the earth and giving of itself.
Besides the fact that his cooking is unquestionably
three star, Savoy has many qualities that other three
star chefs cannot begin to compete with. He is a true
man of the soil, born in 1953 in a small village in
the Isère, where his mother tended the local
café and where his father was a municipal gardener.
Vegetables and greens, the freshest of the fresh, were
the rule. He not only searches out the best suppliers
for his fish and his sausages, his meat and his game,
his cheese and his wines, but he makes friends with
all of them. On a recent year he filmed the regular
visits to his suppliers all over the map of France and
then, at the end of the year, invited them all for a
knock-down drag out feast at his Paris restaurant. His
generosity in unbounded, and totally real.
Not content to limit his creativity and reach to grand
dining, Savoy was and is the most successful of several
chefs to create a series of "baby bistros,"
or spin-offs of satellite restaurants that bear his
signature and style but allow other chefs to shine.
With incredible generosity, Savoy has set up and supported
a series of young chefs - from the talented William
Ledeuil at Les Bookinistes to Stéphane Perraud
at Cap Vernet - and gives them free reign. The result
is a series of restaurants each with its own personality,
its own style of cuisine, reflecting the youthful, inventive,
creative spirit of Savoy himself.
Do you also know how good he is to his staff, and what
a mentor he can be, in this world that greatly lacks
men and women who are true motivators? I know a young
American woman who began peeling carrots in the basement
of the Rue Troyon restaurant and in a few years worked
her way up to fish chef! There are not many French chefs
willing to give either a foreigner or a woman (much
less one that is both!) such a fighting chance.
So here we have it, Michelin inspectors and directors.
At age chef who excels at taking the best products France
has to offer -- from its vineyards to its waters to
its fields -- and presents them with majesty, pride,
and skill. A chef who is a one-man cooking school, bringing
up and encouraging whole generations of young French
chefs. And a chef who does it all cheerfully, with great
spirit, and intense pride.
Michelin men, what more could you ask of him? Give
Guy Savoy his well-merited third star, I beg you. reserv@guysavoy.com
Guy Savoy
18 rue Troyon
Paris 75017
Tel: 01 43 80 40 61
Fax: 01 46 22 43 09
Email:reserve@guysavoy.com
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