Michelin bestows COVID-era restaurant stars despite closures

The Michelin Guide consecrated France's 30th three-star restaurant on Monday as it presented its awards for 2021 against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis, which has seen chefs forced to close their doors.

The famous red guide had promised that no three-star chefs would be demoted as the health crisis rages, with food fans unlikely to book tables anytime soon.

Many chefs fear French authorities will keep restaurants closed for several more weeks if not months, following a lockdown last spring and another imposed since October.

As they hemorrhage money, some have pivoted to take-away or deliveries, adapting menus and often cutting prices, while pressing the government to let them reopen as soon as possible.

"This year chefs have truly earned it," the industry bible's boss Gwendal Poullennec said after a ceremony broadcast via Facebook from the Jules Vernes restaurant (one star) on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

"It's an occasion to shine a spotlight on all these talents, to encourage them, and to keep restaurant patrons motivated" while waiting for the crisis to pass, he said.

He added that only a handful of stars would be taken away, for restaurants that had...