The word on Michelin’s newest stars

Alain Ducasse’s Le Louis XV, the gilt-edged Monte Carlo restaurant that has won and lost a third Michelin star almost as often as Ducasse changes aprons, will regain its third star in the new edition of Michelin’s Red Guide.

The 2003 guide isn’t scheduled for release until the end of the month, but word of the ratings has leaked out in Paris, where the publication of the bible of French gastronomy is greeted annually with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation akin to the Academy Awards announcements in Los Angeles.

One other restaurant -- Le Cinq, in the Hotel George V in Paris -- will be elevated to three stars, bringing the total number of three-star restaurants in Paris to 10 and the number in France to 25, both records for Michelin.

Three restaurants -- Helene Daroze in Paris, Madeleine in Sens and Michel Sarran in Toulouse -- were promoted from one star to two.

Philippe Legendre, the chef at Le Cinq, is largely self-taught. He became well known during the 10 years he cooked at Taillevent, which he left in 1999 for Le Cinq.

Le Louis XV first won its third star in 1990, then lost it in 1997, when Ducasse opened a restaurant in Paris, regained it the next year and lost it again in 2001. Although Ducasse is officially the chef, Frank Cerutti runs the kitchen on a day-to-day basis.