Word: loiseau
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...what the Nobel Peace Prize is to Norway. "More than presidents (whom [the French] laugh at) ...and more than religious leaders (now employed as vague accompanists to the rituals of getting born, marrying and dying), France trusts the Michelin to discover The Truth," wrote Rudolph Chelminski, who has documented Loiseau's ascent. In 1966 Alain Zick shot himself in the head after his Paris restaurant lost a Michelin star. When Strasbourg chef Emile Jung lost a star last year, he said, "No words can ease the pain that eats at our hearts and that has killed our spirit...
...secret that Loiseau was obsessed with the star game. Since winning his second star in 1981, he had shamelessly crusaded for a third. He went some $5 million into debt expanding the 18th century Cote d'Or building in the tiny village of Saulieu. He transformed French cooking with his cuisine a l'eau style, which uses water to bring out flavors and eschews the French penchant for cream and butter. In 1991 Michelin granted him his third star at last. Business shot...
...three etoiles was not quite enough. "Bernard was pretty much a manic depressive," says Chelminski. He once told a fellow chef he would kill himself if he lost a star. "All these exceptional beings who give you the impression of so much assurance, they are all very fragile," Loiseau's widow Dominique said on television last week. "They all have such strong moments of doubt...
Like France's other great chefs, Loiseau found he had to peddle his personality in order to afford to maintain three-star luxury. He became a TV personality and started selling a line of soups, champagne and even fennel-scented perfume. "Personally, I would not want two stars, let alone three," says actress Leslie Caron (Gigi, Chocolat), owner of another Burgundy restaurant. Caron, who knew Loiseau, believes the downturn in the economy and the looming war in Iraq must have driven him to despair...
...money did not kill Loiseau, insists Bernard Fabre, his financial director. "All of that is completely false. The restaurants were doing quite well." The guidebooks are denying guilt as well. "It's not a bad score or one less star that killed him," said GaultMillau head Patrick Mayenobe. "This great chef must have had other worries." A Michelin representative would only express sadness at Loiseau's death and confirm that his stars are safe--for this year, at least...