Three restaurants with Japanese chefs have earned a star in the 2012 French edition of the prestigious Michelin guide.
The feat brings the total number of France-based restaurants with Japanese chefs with Michelin stars to 12, including six in Paris, the guide's publisher said Monday.
The newly accredited restaurants are the Paris-based Kei, with chef Kei Kobayashi from Nagano Prefecture, Sola with Hiroki Yoshitake from Saga Prefecture, also in Paris, and Au 14 Fevrier in the village of Saint-Valentin in central France, with Masafumi Hamano.
Kobayashi, 34, went to France in 1999 and apprenticed at a restaurant headed by Alain Ducasse, one of the world's top chefs, for seven years. He opened Kei last March and earned a star within a year of its opening. Yoshitake worked at various restaurants, including one with renowned chef Hiroyuki Sakai, before opening Sola in 2010. Hamano runs Au 14 Fevrier with other Japanese staff. The restaurant was named after the day celebrating the village's namesake, Saint Valentine.