:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68695043/ona.0.jpg)
This week, the dining guide arm of tire company Michelin returned to its home country, bestowing stars on 638 restaurants in France, including 57 new starred restaurants.
The list, which Michelin calls a reflection of its “loyal[ty] to gourmet diners and restaurants” despite the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, includes one new three-star restaurant. Michelin’s highest honor now goes to AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille, which serves multi-course menus with cross-cultural influences. There are two new two-star restaurants on the list — chef Hélène Darroze’s Marsan in Paris and Alsatian restaurant La Merise, run by Cédric Deckert — but it’s the one-star category that offers the most variety. A total of 54 new restaurants, hailing from various parts of the country, make the list in 2021, including 12 from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in the southwest of France, the most of any region.
In the one-star category, restaurants that serve cuisines outside the realm of French fine dining (an established preference of Michelin) make a strong showing. ONA run by chef Claire Vallée in Arès becomes the first vegan restaurant to earn a Michelin star in France; the name stands for Origine Non Animale, or non-animal origin. Miraflores, a Peruvian restaurant in Lyon, and Oxte, a Mexican restaurant in Paris, also make the list of one-star selections.
As Michelin releases its 2021 slate of guides, it’s added a new star category: the Green Star, which recognizes restaurants that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. France gets more Green Stars than any guide so far, with 33 restaurants receiving the new recognition. But Michelin’s quest to “honor our longstanding commitment to diners and chefs” by publishing guides through the pandemic continues apace next week with the guide to the U.K. and Ireland. Stay tuned, and check out the full list of France’s Michelin stars on the Michelin site.
• MICHELIN Guide France 2021 : AM par Alexandre Mazzia in Marseille honored with its third Star [Michelin]
