Gault et Millau () is a French restaurant guide. It was founded by two restaurant critics, Henri Gault and Christian Millau in 1965.

Points system

Gault Millau rates restaurants on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest. Restaurants given below 10 points are rarely listed. The points are awarded based on the quality of the food, with comments about service, price or the atmosphere of the restaurant given separately. Based on this rating, high-ranking restaurants may display one to five toques. Gault Millau does not accept payment for listing restaurants. Under its original authors and for many years after they left, Gault Millau never awarded a score of 20 points, under the argument that perfection is beyond the limitations of a normal human being. In 2004, two restaurants, both of chef Marc Veyrat, the Maison de Marc Veyrat (or L'Auberge de l'Eridan) in Veyrier-du-Lac near

Annecy Annecy ( , ; , also ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Haute-Savoie Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, regi ...

and La Ferme de Mon Père ("My Father's Farm") in

Megève Megève (; ) is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France with a population of more than 3,000 residents. The town is well known as a ski resort near Mont Blanc in the French Alps. Co ...

, received this score. In 2010 and 2011, Sergio Herman's Oud Sluis also received a score of 20/20. To some, this reflects a fall of standards in the guide after it changed from employing a permanent editorial and tasting staff to using local agents.

Differences from Michelin

There has been discussion about which guide is more important, the

Michelin Guide The ''Michelin Guides'' ( ; ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The ''Guide'' awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few restaurants ...

or the Gault Millau. In the 1970s the Michelin's continued conservative support of traditional

haute cuisine ''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is a style of cooking characterised by meticulous preparation, elaborate presentation, and the use of high quality ingredients. Typically prepared by highly skilled gourmet chefs, haute cuisine dish ...

was challenged by the support of nouvelle cuisine by the Gault-Millau. Michelin is more popular and therefore more influential, while Gault Millau has been considered more food-focused due to the main system being based purely on the quality of the food. Gault Millau has guides for various other countries, including

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Roughly speaking 1* restaurants have an average score of 15,5. 2* restaurants have an average of 17,5 and 3* restaurants have an average score of 18,75 (the majority of Gault-Millau scored restaurants actually don't have any Michelin stars). However Michelin and Gault-Millau scores don't always show much agreement, 1* restaurants can score as low as 12 and as high as 18 on the Gault-Millau rating.

French Chef of the Year

* 1989 Joël Robuchon (Chef of the Century) * 1994 Roger Souvereyns * 2001 Luigi Ciciriello * 2002 Nicolas Le Bec * 2003 Michel Troisgros * 2004 Jean-Paul Abadie * 2005 Arnaud Magnier * 2006 Thierry Marx * 2007 Anne-Sophie Pic * 2008 Jean-Luc Rabanel * 2009 Léa Linster * 2010 William Ledeuil * 2011 Édouard Loubet * 2012 Michel Portos * 2013 Philippe Labbé * 2014 Arnaud Lallement * 2015 Yannick Alleno * 2016 Alexandre Gauthier * 2017 Alexandre Couillon * 2018 Jean Sulpice

Chef of the Century

On its 20th anniversary in 1990

Paul Bocuse Paul François Pierre Bocuse (; 11 February 1926 – 20 January 2018) was a French chef based in Lyon known for the quality of his restaurants and his innovative approaches to cuisine. Dubbed "the pope of gastronomy", he was affectionately nick ...

(restaurant « Paul Bocuse » in Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, near Lyon), Frédy Girardet (« Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville » in Crissier, Suisse), Joël Robuchon (restaurant « Jamin » in Paris) were crowned « Chef of the Century » by Gault&Millau.

References

External links