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| Late Chef Benoît Violier |
He was recognised and respected by his peers and, at 44 – relatively young in the world of haute cuisine – already a restaurateur of world renown.
Last December, his three Michelin-starred Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in Crissier was named the world’s best restaurant by La Liste, a French-led listing based on a compilation of food guides and reviews. The influential Gault et Millau restaurant guide named him chef of the year.
Le Figaro declared him the “world’s best chef”, a distinction he received with modesty.
“You can set up all the listings in the world … what’s important in the end is the customer,” he said at the time. “It’s the customer who comes back, who judges and who gives the truth.”
Two months before the accolade, his 1,000-page cookery book on hunting, preparing and cooking wild fowl was published to critical acclaim, with one veteran chef describing it as the “bible” of its subject.
But Swiss police believe Violier shot himself with his hunting rifle at the weekend. His death has stunned those who knew him, with France’s leading lights of gastronomy lining up to pay tribute.
Marc Veyrat, a celebrated three-star chef, said he was “destroyed” by news of Violier’s death. “The planet has been left orphaned by this exceptional chef,” Veyrat wrote on Twitter.
In an interview with the Swiss newspaper Le Matin, Veyrat added: “I met him several times and he seemed happy, strong. He had everything going for him. He’d just done a magnificent book on hunting, he was doing so many things. Perhaps he couldn’t ease up, but I can’t say why, who knows why?”
Veyrat added: “Cooking is a high-pressured job. People don’t realise how much. It’s one of the few jobs where one is judged and marked all the time. What other profession would accept being constantly evaluated?”
Pierre Gagnaire, another three-star Michelin chef, who was named by his peers as the “biggest star chef in the world” and who has restaurants in Paris, London, Tokyo, Dubai, Moscow and Berlin as well as Sketch in London, added: “Terribly sad news for an extremely talented chef.”
Paul Bocuse, named “chef of the century” by the food guide Gault et Millau and the Culinary Institute of America, said of Violier: “A grand chef, a grand man, a gigantic talent.”
Frédy Girardet, a friend of Violier and his wife Brigitte, and another three-star titan of Swiss haute cuisine who had previously run the restaurant in Crissier, said he was “completely stunned”.
He told the Tribune de Genève: “I can see no motive for such an act. He was a brilliant young man, with enormous talent and an impressive work potential. He gave the impression of being perfect. This news is so sad.”
If it is confirmed that Violier killed himself, he will not be the first to have cracked under the demands of maintaining the gastronomic excellence demanded by powerful restaurant guides such as Michelin and Gault et Millau, customers and the food critics.
A Michelin star or three – the maximum that can be awarded – or a 20/20 from the Gault et Millau can bring international glory, but the pressure to maintain the rating can be intense.
In 2003, the food world was shocked by the suicide of Bernard Loiseau, 52, a three-star chef who was reportedly distraught about criticism of his restaurant, La Côte d’Or, in Burgundy, France, and rumours that he would lose his third star.
Violier’s death came hours before the French gastronomic bible, the Michelin Red Guide, the oldest European hotel and restaurant guide whose star rating can make or break a restaurant, unveiled its 2016 French edition. Violier had retained his three stars when the latest Swiss edition of the guide was announced in November.
Before the ceremony started on Monday, those gathered stood for a minute’s silence in honour of Violier, but there were echoes of the earlier tragedy when it was revealed that Loiseau’s restaurant, run by his wife Dominique since his death 13 years ago, had lost one of its three stars.
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