French star chef Yannick Delpech has denounced violence and hatred in the Yellow West protests. "Anarchists and racists" would cause havoc in the midst of legitimate social protests, the 43-year-old wrote on Facebook, stressing that he would not bow to the "dictates of hatred": "I do not submit to insults, intimidation, looting, and the violence of a minority. "
At five o'clock on Monday morning, a parked car went up in flames in front of Delpech's restaurant "L'Amphitryon". The cook himself was at the time of the crime in the building in Colomiers near Toulouse. The fire seized the kitchen and the cooling chamber. The regional channel France 3 published a photo showing severe fire damage on one side of the building.
The fire had been set without any doubt "intentionally," the prosecutor in Toulouse said. The judiciary checks according to its own information whether there is a connection with an earlier break-in in the restaurant and smearings on the building - and whether possibly "yellow vests" are behind the deeds.
Unknown had lubricated on the 22nd of January on the facade of the restaurant words like "collaborator" and "whore". Also the abbreviation "GJ" for "gilets jaunes" (yellow vests) left them on the house wall.
Delpech announced on Facebook to reopen the restaurant "as soon as possible". He has 25 employees who can not work for the time being.
In the year 2000, Delpech was the youngest French chef to receive his first star from the world-famous gastronomy guide Michelin at the age of only 24. In 2008 he received a second star, which he lost again in 2017.
The "yellow vests" demonstrate since November against the reform policies of France's head of state Emmanuel Macron and for a strengthening of purchasing power. In protests, demonstrators repeatedly come up with violent clashes with the police. Even moderate activists of the "yellow vests" are increasingly exposed to abuse and threats of violence.