King of fish joins elite league of three-star Michelin chefs

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2008

MARSEILLE, France (AFP) — Gerald Passedat, a chef with a special knack for fish aptly based on the shores of the Mediterranean, is the new kid on the block joining France's elite league of three-star Michelin chefs.

Now ranked good enough to pull off the food bible's top-of-the-class rating, Passedat's seafront Marseille restaurant, Le Petit Nice, had already been discovered by the likes of Iggy Pop, Joe Cocker, Sting and the late Luciano Pavarotti.

Yet it took the self-trained chef who now heads a team of 49 people decades to find his style.

He told AFP he felt "a great joy and a certain pride" to be admitted to the lofty three-star club, but insisted "the star is not an end in itself."

"I will use it as a creative springboard. It's a beginning," he...