Guy Savoy – the chef who outgrew his own stars

On the first floor of the Monnaie de Paris, the eighteenth-century mint on the Left Bank, Guy Savoy has cooked under his own name since 1980 — first on a quiet street near the Arc de Triomphe and, since May 2015, inside six salons overlooking the Seine, the Pont Neuf and the Louvre. Guy Savoy's flagship restaurant in Paris opened in 1980, gained two Michelin stars by 1985 and the ultimate third star in 2002. Just days before the release of the 2023 Michelin Guide for France, news broke that the restaurant was being demoted from three Michelin stars to two. It holds two MICHELIN Stars today, yet La Liste has named it the best restaurant in the world for the ninth consecutive year, and the kitchen plays on regardless. In May 2026 Savoy added a different kind of recognition: for the first time in its 210-year history, the Académie des Beaux-Arts, one of the five academies of the Institut de France, welcomed a chef into its ranks — his own seat just across the quai de Conti from his dining rooms.

01The room and the setting

Monnaie de Paris, France's mint, is a work of eighteenth-century grandeur: its six Seine-view lounges sit inside architecture by Jacques-Denis Antoine. His friend Jean-Michel Wilmotte envisaged a setting at once restrained and contemporary, where works of art stoke the fires of modernity and the dining table becomes a theatrical stage, focusing and capturing light. He darkened the rooms into a harmony of slate-grey tones, so that all the light comes from the tall windows opening onto the Louvre, the Pont Neuf, the Seine and the Institut de France. The six salons carry their own names and views — Belles Bacchantes, Vert Galant, Bibliothèque, Bouquinistes, Scènes de Paris and Académicien — and contemporary art and sculpture, much of it loaned by François Pinault, sits against the stone. The room welcomes sixty covers, run by a brigade of thirty-five cooks and twenty-five waiting staff.

02The chef

Guy Savoy was born on 24 July 1953 in Nevers; in 1955 his parents moved to Bourgoin-Jallieu, where at the age of 16 he began his career as a chocolatier with Louis Marchand before training with the Troisgros brothers. He opened his first restaurant in Paris in 1980 and has cooked there, under his own name, ever since. More than four decades on, the honours have moved beyond the kitchen: elected on 13 November 2024 to chair V of the free members section, succeeding the financier Michel David-Weill, Guy Savoy was officially received at the Académie des Beaux-Arts on 20 May 2026 under the Dome of the Institut de France. Permanent Secretary Laurent Petitgirard said the election recognised “one of the most eminent representatives of French gastronomy” and a friend of contemporary art. It was the first time in the Academy's 210-year history that a chef had been welcomed into its ranks.

Insider tip

Open Wed–Sat for lunch and dinner; jacket required for men; book well ahead for one of 60 covers.

03The cooking

The repertoire has barely changed in substance, only in precision. Artichoke and black truffle soup with toasted mushroom brioche remains the dish most diners wait for, alongside the ‘Colours of caviar’ — a layered caviar and smoked sabayon — and the ‘raw and cooked’ lobster served on its own coral with butternut roasted in the shell. Fish and game both arrive built on deliberate contrasts of temperature and texture: turbot served three ways with vegetables in a reduced jus, or free-range guinea fowl poached then roasted with grilled chestnut, salsify and sumac. On Saturdays the kitchen steps outside the set menus altogether to cook a single classic dish from the French repertoire, revealed to followers on Instagram each Thursday.

04What to order

From the à la carte menu, read in October 2026: the artichoke soup with black truffle and layered truffled mushroom brioche (€160); the ‘Colours of caviar’ (€195); a pot-au-feu of giant oysters with a gribiche of sea flavours (€145); roasted red mullet ‘swimming in the sea’ with Léonie's gnocchi (€175); turbot in three variations (€205); and crispy, tender veal sweetbreads with cuttlefish and pil-pil (€205). To finish, the ‘open’ mille-feuille with Tahitian vanilla or the trolley of ice creams, sorbets and dessert jars, both from a dessert list priced at €58.

05Wine and drinks

The wine list arrives like a manuscript of its own: a large bound book, presented to diners on its own table, made up predominantly of French labels, with some international alternatives. It rewards those who explore beyond the first page, from Burgundy and Bordeaux through to the Rhône and Champagne, with the sommelier on hand to navigate a list built for serious collectors as much as curious diners.

06When to go and booking

The restaurant keeps a short working week: open Wednesday to Saturday, with lunch from noon to half past one and dinner from seven to ten. Men are asked to wear a jacket, valet parking is offered at the door, and with only sixty covers across the six salons, a table — for the à la carte, the whole-table tasting menu ‘Colours, Textures & Flavours’ (€760), or, at lunch only, the seven-course ‘Keep it simple’ menu (€295 excluding drinks, €410 with four glasses of wine) — should be booked well ahead. The nearest Métro is Pont Neuf, on line 7, a few minutes' walk from the quai de Conti entrance.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.