Hélène Darroze’s Paris restaurant downgraded to one Michelin star

by Kerstin Kühn, Monday 1st March 2010 11:38

French chef Hélène Darroze has lost one of her two Michelin stars at her eponymous restaurant in Paris in the 2010 edition of the Michelin guide for France.

Darroze, who is one of France’s leading female chefs, opened a restaurant at London’s Connaught hotel in June 2008 for which she gained a star in 2009.

She has been dividing her time between the two restaurants in London’s Mayfair and on the Left Bank in Paris where she held two Michelin stars for seven consecutive years.

The 2010 Michelin guide for France awarded a total of 58 new stars bringing the total of Michelin-starred restaurants in the country to 558 – nearly four times as many as the UK and Ireland’s 141.

The only establishment to have been awarded the top accolade of three Michelin stars is Auberge du Vieux Puits in Fontjoncouse in the Languedoc region in the South West of France, which brings the total of three-starred restaurants in France to 26.

A total of 47 restaurants celebrated their first Michelin star raising the number of starred establishments to 455, while 10 restaurants were raised to two-star-level, bringing the total to 77, including Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous restaurant au Trianon in Versailles which retained the two stars it gained last year.

Gordon Ramsay Holdings handed back control of the restaurant to the hotel last year after it produced a loss of £1.78m in just eight months of operating.

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By Kerstin Kühn

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