What stars could the Michelin Guide announce in Cognac?

The 2022 winners will be unveiled this Tuesday, from 4 p.m., during a ceremony broadcast from Cognac on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram

For the first time, the Michelin Guide presentation ceremony is not taking place in Paris, but in the region, in Cognac this year, with the aim of highlighting the richness of French gastronomic terroirs.
As every year, a few rare tables are approached to obtain their third star and 20 Minutes has its own idea of those who can claim to obtain it.
More generally, there should be many new stars this year, if only to compensate for the shutdowns, during confinement, of many restaurants which have not resumed and which in fact will lose theirs.

The new Michelin Guide stars are expected this Tuesday in Cognac.

And there should be many of them this year, if only to compensate for the stars lost by restaurants that have not reopened since confinement.

We also expect all the "green" stars, who will not have new macaroons, but an eco-responsible label that has been an integral part of the Red Guide awards since 2020. That should make a lot of people (we are talking about 200 chefs and 100 journalists) to participate in the "reunion of the entire profession" in a tone that the Michelin wishes to be festive and playful, in order to celebrate "all the vitality" of French gastronomy, as affirmed by the international director of the guides Gwendal Poullennec, the last weekend in an interview with AFP.

For the first time, the ceremony is not being held in Paris but in the region, in Cognac (Charente), a destination chosen for a long time, well before the health crisis, for the richness of its gastronomic and wine heritage.

“In a region with such generous land, the Michelin Guide's honoring of the various restaurant trades, and particularly that of sommelier, takes on its full meaning,” explained Michelin at the time.

More generally, the objective now consists of “highlighting artisans and their region, an inexhaustible source of inspiration for chefs who anchor their cuisine in their immediate environment and its seasons”.

And it is likely that the destination chosen for 2023 will be announced this Tuesday after the ceremony.

And then the stars?

Stars, many will lose in 2022, that's for sure.

Already, those who have not reopened after confinement such as the Manoir de la Boulaie, located in Haute-Goulaine near Nantes.

But others also who had to be warned last weekend.

Fortunately, there will be at least as many to win.

Some have already spilled the beans.

This is the case of the brothers Laurent and Jacques Pourcel, for their new Jardin des Sens opened last June in the heart of Montpellier (34), after five years of work and a reset of their starred meter.

“On Friday, the Michelin Guide called us.

We are invited to go to Cognac and we will have "a good surprise", they told the

Midi Libre

What awaits us?

We do not know ?

A star ?

Two stars ?

A gourmet bib?

" AT

20 Minutes

, we bet on at least two stars at once for the 57-year-old ex-three-star twins.

Just as the praises of the Michelin this winter vis-à-vis the cuisine of Jean Imbert after the sarcasm of last summer, can make him hope for at least one, even two stars at once at the Plaza Athénée.

It would be the first of the former Top-Chef.

And then the three stars?

New three-stars, there could be quite a few, compared to other years.

The recent consecrations of the Japanese Francophile Kei Kobayashi in 2020 and the Marseillais traveler Alexandre Mazzia do not plead for a return to grace of the old glories, Bocuse style.

But for a highlighting of authentic, open and daring talents.

As such, Plénitude, the new Parisian address of Arnaud Donckele at Cheval Blanc, the former Samaritaine, with its “assembly of absolutes” and its stunning sauces, has every chance.

As well as La Table d'Olivier Nasti, anticipated for a long time at Chambard in Keysersberg (68) and all the more so since Alsace no longer has any triple stars.

We believe a little less in the chances of the other two big favorites,

the restaurant Les Morainières by Michaël Arnoult in Jongieux (73) because the Alps already have four triple stars.

Or those, in Cancale (35), of Hugo Rollinger's Coquillage, son of the only three-starred chef ever listed in Brittany.

To his disadvantage, Olivier's offspring was named Chef of the Year by Gault Millau, Michelin's eternal rival, and it's hard to imagine the Red Guide following the Yellow so quickly... Which suddenly leaves all its chances to another Breton that the rumor cites among the favorites, the restaurant Anne de Bretagne by Mathieu Guibert in Plaine sur mer, near Pornic (44).

And the women in all this?