While Chef’s at Play, Star Goes Away

The news that the 1993 Guide Michelin has withdrawn one of the three stars from Roger Verge’s Le Moulin de Mougins last week shocked the restaurant community. Verge, one of France’s most beloved chefs, opened the restaurant near Cannes 24 years ago. After five years, it was elevated to the coveted three-star status. Verge then opened a second restaurant in Mougins--the one-star L’Amandier (Verge has also lost that star.)

Since that time, Verge’s empire has grown along with his celebrity status. He now also owns a cafe in Monte Carlo, a restaurant in Disney World in Florida, another in Tokyo, a couple of cooking schools, a boutique, his own line of china and glassware, a line of food products . . . there’s even a stove with his name on it.

“I am shocked,” says Patrick Healy, consulting chef at Xiomara in Pasadena. Healy trained with Verge at Le Moulin de Mougins for a year. “But they say holding on to your stars is harder than actually getting them.”

La Toque’s Ken Frank offers this advice. “If I were him, I would put myself back in the kitchen and stay there every night until I got that star back.”

Adds Patina’s Joachim Splichal: “A lot of people will open the guide and go to Ducasse (Alain Ducasse’s three-star Louis XV restaurant at the Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo). I hope Verge can get his star back.”

Another source put it more bluntly: “Now Verge will not be able to sell his restaurant for a fortune.”

But Healy says that the loss of a star will not keep customers away from Le Moulin de Mougins. “They love the restaurant, they love his food, and they love Roger Verge.”

In other Michelin news, Pierre Gagnaire in St. Etienne, became France’s youngest three-star chef at 30, and Dominique Le Stanc, the up and coming chef at Chanteclair (where Jacques Maximin once wore the toque) was awarded a second star.

COMING TO AMERICA: The stars are coming to California. Marc Meneau, three-star chef/owner of L’Esperance in Burgundy, will be cooking both lunch and dinner at L’Orangerie March 23-29. The format will be similar to last year: a choice of three courses for $95, and a five-course degustation for $120. The latest addition, however, is a bargain: three courses at lunch for $35. . . . Jean-Marie Meulien, two- star chef at Le Clos Longchamp in Paris’ Le Meridien Etoile, will cook at Le Meridien in Coronado for five nights beginning March 23. . . . And Didier Oudil, two-star owner of Pain, Adour et Fantasie, will be cooking at Champagne Bis from March 29-April 4. Oudil, executive chef at Michel Guerard in Eugenie Les Bains for eight years, is generally considered one of the most exciting young chefs in France today. This is a rare opportunity to taste his food; menus are $75 and $100 per person.

PASTA POWER: Celestino Drago, who owns the popular Italian restaurant in Santa Monica that bears his last name, has just bought another restaurant: the former Kaktus on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. “I am probably crazy to open a restaurant in this kind of economy,” he says. “But I kind of miss Beverly Hills.” Drago left his first restaurant, Celestino, after a conflict with his partner there.

After minor cosmetic changes, Kaktus will be renamed Il Pastaio and become a moderately priced Italian restaurant where Drago will serve, “great pastas, risottos, salads, grilled vegetables, and a few desserts.” He’ll also make some of the Sicilian specials Drago is famous for.

All pastas at the restaurant, which is scheduled to open in June, will be made on the premises. “You’ll walk in and see someone actually making the pastas,” says Drago. “People want to see where their food is coming from.”