The Chef Who Committed Suicide After Losing a Michelin Star

Bernard Loiseau’s battle for life

Andrei Tapalaga ✒️
4 min readNov 18, 2020
Bernard Loiseau and his team of cooks in 2000 (Source: The Daily Beast)

AAchieving three Michelin stars is every chef’s dream as it is seen as the highest rank in the culinary industry. What is even more difficult than achieving three Michelin stars is maintaining them, as every year the Michelin guide checks upon each restaurant awarded by them to see if the standards are kept.

To even have the nerve of thinking about such an achievement, you need to spend years in the kitchen, working over twelve hours a day and perfecting your craft. That is exactly what Bernard Loiseau did to achieve his dream until he lost it, along with his will to live.

Start of his career

Bernard Loiseau was born in Chamalieres, France, in 1951, and from a young age, he always wanted to become a chef as he loved spending time with his mother in the kitchen. He started working in a professional kitchen at the age of fourteen, working his way up to the status of chef from apprentice at the famous La Maison Troisgros.

Bernard Loiseau (Source: Eater)

In 1972, he started working as a head chef at the Claude Verger restaurant where he became…

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Andrei Tapalaga ✒️

Avid Writer with invaluable knowledge in Humanity! “You make your own life” atapalaga97@gmail.com