This could be the perfect plot for a comedy of misunderstandings set in the trendy world of the restaurant business. The diner owned by a garrulous and kind lady is confused with the upscale restaurant led by a sullen chef who is refractory to feelings. Same name, same street, only 200 kilometers apart and a completely different way of presenting to customers.
It sounds like the work of a somewhat cunning screenwriter, yet it really happened: in the French edition of the Michelin Guide, two restaurants called Bouche à Oreille (Word of mouth) and both located on a rue de la Chapelle were confused. One caught a very surprising star, and the other saw it unrecognized (much to his disappointment, we can imagine).
And as in every beautiful comedy of misunderstandings respecting the initial situation is only the start of a chain reaction with unpredictable outcomes. Yes because if it is well known that having a Michelin star entails a sudden increase in turnover by at least 50%, it is equally well known that a restaurant that aspires to be star-studded incurs operating and raw material costs that if not soon offset by public success can lead to bankruptcy within a few months.
The modest brasserie in Bourges, also open for lunch with its 12-euro "buffet à volonté," suddenly found itself full of out-of-town customers who, with the bright eyes of those who have just discovered a well-hidden treasure, consulted the menu with unusual solemnity.
While the non-starred chef Aymeric Dreux, 200 kilometers to the north, mulled thoughtfully over what mistake he had made in not deserving that dutiful star; which is actually a macaron, as the cousins across the Alps say. Perhaps the carpet was too demodé a color? Or the lobster flan had been served a few degrees too hot? What about the calf's brains? He had changed butcher shops in the last while, maybe the new one had products of fluctuating quality...who knows, maybe, maybe, unfortunately....
Michelin guide admits mistake
Finding out that it was just a mistake in toponymy, the carelessness of a less than diligent editor, will have generated very different reactions. We are sure that Veronique Jacquet, the owner of the brasserie, must have laughed in delight upon discovering the arcane nature of that sudden success. While the chef of the other Bouche à Oreille, finally starred, may have taken the affair as An interesting lesson imparted for free by fate. As if to say: it is really the vagaries of chance that create fortunes and misfortunes; one star-macaron printed beside the right restaurant or the wrong one and two lives change forever. And human beings without a sense of irony are naked.
Source: Agi.it
