A vegan restaurant in southwest France has earned a Michelin star, the first in an establishment that serves only animal products in France.
Claire Vallee runs the ONA restaurant – which means Origine Non Animale – in the city of Ares, near Bordeaux, which it launched in 2016 thanks to the collective financing of supporters and a loan from a green bank.
“It felt like I was hit by a train,” Vallee told AFP about the moment she received a call from the Michelin Guide informing her of her decision.
In addition to Monday’s classic star award, Vallee also won a green star, which Michelin presented last year to reward establishments with a strong track record of ethical practices.
ONA is “the first vegan restaurant in France to earn a star,” a Michelin Guide spokeswoman told AFP.
Vallee offered seven dishes on her gourmet menu before closing ONA because of Covid-19 restrictions. Their favorite combinations involve pine, boletus mushroom and sake, or celery, tonka and amber ale.
Traditional French banks dismissed the young chef when she approached them for a loan to start. “They said the prospects for veganism and plant-based foods were very uncertain,” she said. The location chosen for his restaurant in the Arcachon basin, on the Atlantic coast, was also not considered promising.
Vallee said she didn’t hold a grudge: “Everyone does their job.”
Vallee started to guarantee financing through crowdfunding, without the need for guarantees, and through Le Nef, a bank specializing in loans for projects that it considers ethical. “It shows that nothing is impossible,” she said.
Vallee admitted to asking herself along the way “if we were good enough because cooking with vegetables is difficult and innovative”.
But, she added: “The most important thing is to enjoy doing this.”
Although now considered a pioneer in vegan cuisine in France, Vallee said she simply followed in the footsteps of others, highlighting the late Jean-Christian Jury, who ran the Mano Verde restaurant in Berlin.