Michelin 2024: two new three-star restaurants in France. Italians Flavio Lucarini and Aurora Storari secure the first one

There's great celebration for the release of the Michelin France guide: plenty of stars throughout the country and satisfying results for Italy as well. In the collective imagination (and not only there), Paris is the French capital of gastronomy with a quantity and variety of great restaurants difficult to match, capable of truly satisfying everyone. There are legendary establishments (like Tour d'Argent, the oldest restaurant in Paris reopened in 2023, or Espadon at Ritz Paris in Place Vendôme, also recently reopened and newly starred) and sparkling examples of bistronomy that escape any rigid definition, a strong presence of Japanese chefs and establishments that have engaged in interesting dialogues with local gastronomy under the Eiffel Tower, contemporary cuisine challenging the obligation to luxury products to move, here as elsewhere, towards vegetable-based cooking (one of the great confirmations of this year). However, the City of Light alone is not enough to exhaust the picture of haute cuisine across the Channel: the red guide, in fact, this year has sought out deserving establishments in the French provinces, from La Table du Castellet to Le Castellet, in Provence (a new three-star with a green soul), to the array of new entries in the one-star firmament. But let's start with the numbers.

The Michelin France 2024 Guide

The 2024 edition will be remembered for its great results: 2 new three-star restaurants, 8 new two-stars, 52 establishments earning their first macaron, and 9 green stars. In total, there are 639 starred restaurants: 30 with 3 stars, 75 with two stars, 534 with one.

Jérôme Banctel, chef of Gabriel. Photo: LeClick/Le Gabriel

The new three-stars

The top tier of the podium is becoming increasingly crowded. The number of three-star establishments in France reaches 30, with the two new acquisitions confirming the back-and-forth between the capital and the provinces as we discussed earlier. La Table du Castellet makes a splash (re)claiming the three stars in one go since its reopening. In 2022, Fabien Ferré (a thirty-five-year-old from the Troisgros school) took over from his mentor Christophe Bacquié (now at Mas Les Eydins), with whom he worked for over a decade at Le Castellet in Provence, continuing his work but emancipating himself from it, as evidenced by the aloe vera vinaigrette on mackerel with green beans and geranium. Ferré is the youngest French chef to receive three stars. In Paris, there's Le Gabriel, a stunning restaurant in the even more stunning La Réserve Paris hotel: incredible service, dreamy spa, limitless elegance. In short, luxury at its finest, but with a warm and caring welcome (the service, we said, is incredible). In the kitchen, there's the Breton Jérôme Banctel, a chef with great technique refined in the school of the greats, mixed with originality and international influences, dedicating a menu with the emblematic name Periplo, which takes customers on a journey around the world, but always starting from France.

The new two-stars

In Paris, 3 restaurants have brought home a second star: let's start with a certain local pride with Maison Ruggieri, in the 8th arrondissement, where Martino Ruggieri, former right-hand man of Yannick Alléno at Pavillon Ledoyen and Bocuse d'Or Italy 2019, continues his conquest of France at a fast pace - two stars in less than two years - focusing on harmonious pairings even when daring, great sauces, attentive and friendly service in its elegance; after all, this is his home, and the proposal of a à la carte menu, increasingly rare, seems to confirm it. Also in the 8th arrondissement, there's L'Orangerie at George V where chef Alain Taudon conquers two stars with a cuisine based on vegetables, fish, dairy, but without meat, not for that reason boring or less tasty, while in the 7th, there's the legendary Le Jules Verne on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower: at 125 meters high, the view of Paris is spectacular, and so is the food, with a proposal signed by chef Frédéric Anton and executed by executive chef Kevin Garcia. But - as we said - Paris is not the only one.

Maison Benoît Vidal, relocated from Val-d'Isère to Annecy, is a temple of elegance and great raw materials, enhanced by pure and seemingly simple preparations by the Catalan chef now adopted by Savoie, a land celebrated in his cuisine (where there is also a vegetarian menu). A few valleys away, in a luxury residence in Courchevel, there's the restaurant of Sylvestre Wahid - Les Grandes Alpes: four tables, open kitchen, for a deluxe customized gastronomic experience where the chef mixes great products from French tradition with typical ingredients of Pakistani cuisine. We find Christophe Bacquié again at Mas Les Eydins, opened with his wife Alexandra Bacquié in the heart of the vineyards and olive groves of Luberon. The cuisine is Provencal, very elegant, intimate and without frills, focused on precious products, between new creations and some of his dishes, like the modern aioli. In his Maison Ronan Kervarrec in Saint-Grégoire, Ronan Kervarrec pays homage to Brittany in a personal story far from trends. The large windows overlooking the terrace overlooking the garden provide a backdrop for a proposal that mixes references to the chef's private and professional life (with the homage to his father, saucier at George V, through masterful sauces).

Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac. Photo: StudioPhenix

The leap from zero to two stars was not entirely unexpected for Les Ambassadeurs at the Hôtel Métropole Monte-Carlo, a legendary Belle Époque-style palace built in 1886. Here chef Christophe Cussac, historic executive of the restaurant who worked with Robuchon and was his student, has reconnected the threads of a discourse interrupted some time ago, skillfully balancing classical vein and more modern proposals, bringing back the service trolley for bread and desserts to its peak (one of the trends we bet on for this 2024).

One Michelin Star for Hémicycle by Flavio Lucarini and Aurora Storari

Of the 52 new restaurants awarded with a star, 12 are in the capital: these are places that elaborate the concept of bistronomy, each finding an original formulation, with chefs trained in the best establishments in France and abroad, attention to taste, fresh products, and the supply chain, freedom from codes and traditions. However, the provinces also express a perhaps unexpected vitality that marks an important renewal in the gastronomic scene: many of the young talents choose small towns for their establishments. Among the many awarded this year, there are two that have caught our attention. Opened a few months ago, Hémicycle convinced us immediately. For the project (three floors of restaurant, dessert bar, cocktail bar) but above all for the talent and personality of the duo Flavio Lucarini (savory) and Aurora Storari (sweet), Italians from Rome who have given a new boost to the presence of Italians in Paris, choosing not so much to express themselves in an Italian gastronomic language, but to find a new, mature, bold alphabet. Another round, another couple, this time Italian-Argentine: it's the one formed by Lorenzo Ragni and Florencia Montes, who met at Mirazur by Mauro Colagreco and then moved a few kilometers away, to Nice, where they lead Onice, a cuisine that is clear and incisive, with a strong seasonal imprint. Couples in the kitchen seem to please Michelin, evidently: in 2022 it was the turn of Alessandra Del Favero and Oliver Piras to conquer the star with Il Carpaccio.

Green Stars and Special Awards

There are 9 new green stars in France, awarded to those committed to the environment: La Cour de Rémi, Domaine du Châtelard, Les Jardiniers, La Bastide de Moustiers, L'Art de Vivre, Bellefeuille - Saint James Paris, La Galinette, En Pleine Nature, Le Saint Hilaire. The award for service goes to Sandrine Deley Favario, director of L'Auberge de Montmin, and Serge Schaal, director of La Fourchette des Ducs. The award for Sommelier goes to Xavier Thuizat, director and head sommelier of L'Écrin, and Magali Delalex, head sommelier of La Table de l'Ours. The Young Chef award goes to Théo Fernandez, chef at Auberge de la Forge. The Mentor Chef award goes to Yannick Alléno, a true reference point of modern French gastronomy and an exceptional creator. Passion for Desserts this year goes to 8 establishments that have been able to enhance the sweet world of the meal: Hémicycle, where pastry chef Aurora Storari creates extraordinarily intense desserts while keeping the sugar content to a minimum, mixing ingredients typical of savory cuisine, such as fish, with pastry techniques defining a third way of the dessert world. At Les Ambassadeurs by Christophe Cussac, Patrick Mesiano instead reinterprets pastry for haute cuisine with the dessert trolley. Then there's Mont Blanc Restaurant & Goûter (chef Benoit Goulard), La Table du Castellet (pastry chef François Luciano); Le Pré Catelan (pastry chef Max Martin); Auberge de l'Ill (pastry chef Pascal Hainigue); Ceto (pastry chef Julia Canavate); Le Cap (pastry chef Pierre-Jean Quinonero).