FRANCE:It has been lampooned as a stultifying snapshot of France's most pretentious places to eat - a testosterone-charged arena of stress-ridden alpha males catering to conservative businessmen on expense accounts.
But the French Michelin guide, the influential "little red book" of gastronomy, appeared to take a step into the modern age yesterday by awarding its top three-star accolade to the first female chef in more than 50 years.
Anne-Sophie Pic (37) - a petite, softly spoken and revered chef who has headed the kitchen at La Maison Pic in the southeastern French town of Valence for more than a decade - is the fourth woman to win the top award.
A specialist in fish, her signature dishes include sea bass caught in coastal waters and steamed over wakame kelp, served with gillardeau oyster bonbons, cucumber chutney and vodka and lemon butter sauce. But although she came late to haute cuisine, the chef, who prefers to mix textures and flavours rather than radically alter ingredients, comes from a gastronomic dynasty. Both her grandfather, famous for his crayfish gratin, and father had three stars in their time.
Pic grew up around the family restaurant but in her teens she rebelled by shunning cuisine to study management overseas. At 23 she accepted her calling, resolving to train under her father who died shortly after her decision. Five years later, the self-taught chef took over the restaurant, shaking up the staff and the menu to reflect her devotion to plain, natural ingredients. Of Le Figaro's recent guide to the richest chefs in France, Pic was the only woman in the top 20. The French media remain fascinated by women who take on what one critic called the perpetually "moustached" world of male-dominated kitchens.
The award for Pic surprised no one. Instead the shock came as the axe fell on the old guard. After last year's downgrading of La Tour d'Argent, France's oldest restaurant, Michelin also took the axe to Paris's famed Taillevent. The 60-year-old restaurant had boasted three stars for 33 years and was seen as "untouchable".
Francois Simon, Le Figaro's restaurant critic, said the Michelin guide was an out-of-touch relic and its award to a top female chef would sadly not change much in the "blocked, macho world of French gastronomy".
He said the guide had too long ignored a range of women and international chefs and had completely failed to recognise the most promising pool of talent in French cooking: Paris's bistros gourmands, where no tie is required and diners eat for less than €30. - (Guardian service)