Spanish chef becomes latest to hand back Michelin star

Julio Biosca not interested in pressure that comes with ranking.

A Spanish chef has told Michelin thanks but no thanks and given back his star.

Julio Biosca of restaurant Casa Julio, located in the small village of Fontanars dels Alforins in Valencia, has become the latest chef to voluntarily hand back his single star ranking to the revered red guide.

He has no problems with the Michelin brand, he said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.

But unlike many of his ambitious chef brethren, Biosca says he never sought out to be recognised by Michelin and said he’s not interested in having to deal with the pressure and fallout that comes with a star ranking.

“You start giving yourself airs. And when everyone tells you you’re the best, the day you fail to get the second star you get pissed,” he told El Pais.

The Michelin isn't always a blessing. Chef Julio Biasco from Spain has become the latest to hand back his star. – shutterstock/AFP

Casa Julio received its first star in 2009. After four years of dealing with what became a burdensome status, the restaurant wrote Michelin asking to be taken off the list in the 2014 edition of the guide but the request went unanswered.

It only finally managed to be dropped from the 2015 volume of the guide.

Biosca joins a growing list of chefs who have either voluntarily handed back their stars or denounced the system.

Most recently, chef Fredrick Dhooghe of Huis Van Lede in Belgium asked Michelin to take back its star earlier this year, complaining that the ranking attracted excessively demanding tourist diners.

In 2012, Aussie chef Skye Gyngell of Petersham Nurseries Cafe in London called her Michelin star a “curse” and quit.

And perhaps most famously and tragically, French chef Bernard Loiseau, who was already suffering from depression, committed suicide in 2003 following rumours that the guide was about to strip his restaurant La Côte d’Or of its third star. – AFP Relaxnews