Palo Alto Chef Celebrates Being Off Michelin Guide: Report

PALO ALTO, CA — Most restaurants wouldn’t celebrate being taken off the Michelin guide, but one Palo Alto chef is glad that he no longer has two Michelin stars, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bruno Chemel of Palo Alto’s Baumé, a French spot on California Avenue, told the Chronicle that being recognized on the Michelin guide was a “distraction.” Baumé has earned Michelin stars every year for the past decade, but Chemel said to the Chronicle that he’s been asking Michelin to remove his restaurant for years.

This year, they finally agreed.

“I’m not bitter. I really enjoy having two stars. I’m not saying I never liked it. But now because I’m getting a little older I realize, what do I want to do with my life for the next 12 years? Today, I want to please my guests,” Chemel told the Chronicle.

Chemel also said that the Michelin guide was “erratic, corporate focus and fixations.”

As recently as 2017, Chemel told the Palo Alto Weekly that he was motivated to go from two stars to three stars. But he’s had a change of heart, telling the Chronicle that he simply wants to serve his customers in the restaurant that is run completely by him and his wife.

Protégé, also on California Avenue, was a Palo Alto restaurant that did make the Michelin guide this year.

Read the full story in the Chronicle here.