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Comment by mlorenz | Hacker News Reader

French speaker here. He's essentially saying: "At 46 years of age, I want to run my business the same as before (with thanks to Michelin for the acclaim they have afforded us) but without the pressure of the three stars."

Totally get it, and totally agree. The meaning I take from the video: "Let us do our best without worrying about being judged every second of every day." Must be exhausting to be in that situation.

Bravo!

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My first inclination is "Why doesn't he just ignore Michelin" but then I realize that a poor ranking in Michelin could do real damage to his business beyond the segment of his guests that is aware of Michelin ratings.

Thanks for the translation by the way.

Pretty sure you can't have a "poor Michelin ranking". The restaurants that are judged poorly are not included in the listing at all.

Being stripped of a star sends a very strong signal that the restaurant/chef is in decline. It will certainly be harmful for their reputation and business.

thats not the point. for a three stars loosing a star is loosing money which means loosing quality, you can't afford to pay top notch cooks, they leave, you loose more quality, you have to lower your price, you buy cheaper products, you loose quality...

But instead, he wants to lose all three stars? There's undeniably something irrational about his request.

If he's willing to lose stars to get rid of the pressure, he can simply ignore the judges.

Because it would be much easier to ignore the pressure put by random and secret food inspections if those inspections don't even exist at all. To get and keep 3 stars over more than 10 years require to be overconscious, so even if he wants to ignore the ranking he might not be able to.

But he is cooks food that no-one eats, his business will still suffer also.

The thing that Michelin’s review process does, though, is it pushes very heavily towards “consistent excellence”. And if you’re charging well into 3 figures for a meal, that is a reasonable expectation. If the chef opened a place where he was willing to tolerate some dishes that didn’t quite work, timing that wasn’t perfect, etc, and you could eat for $50/head, I’d be willing to tolerate misses — after all, you can go there several times for the price of one go at a big prix fixe. But one go is all most guests will ever take at that 150/head meal, and at that price point, the flawless choreography and execution is part of the package.

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