Etoile Verte: sustainable cuisine is rewarded with Michelin stars in France

The 2025 update to the Michelin Guide features 10 'green star' restaurants

Tomates de Provence & piment rocoto from restaurant Hiély Lucullus

The recently published 2025 update to the Michelin Guide features 10 restaurants added to the list of eateries boasting an ‘Etoile Verte’ (Green Star) for sustainable gastronomy.

They bring the total number of restaurants committed to reducing their environmental impact to 100, with several among them also earning or keeping a regular Michelin star or stars for dining excellence.

Michelin describes the concept of awarding Green Stars – launched in the 2021 edition – thus: “The Michelin Green Star is an annual award which highlights restaurants at the forefront of the industry when it comes to their sustainable practices. They hold themselves accountable for both their ethical and environmental standards, and work with sustainable producers and suppliers to avoid waste and reduce or even remove plastic and other non-recyclable materials from their supply chain”.

A crucial element is sourcing local ingredients and supporting nearby producers. “Many work directly with growers, farmers and fishermen; forage in hedgerows and woodlands; grow plants and rear animals; and use regenerative methods such as no-dig vegetable gardens and successional cover crop growing,” says the prestigious dining guide, first published by the French tyre manufacturer in 1900.

Gérald Azoulay and wife Patricia, who run Hiély-Lucullus, recipient of the Michelin Green Star for sustainable cuisine

The latest list of Green Star restaurants – available to explore here – reveals the extent to which the latest generation of top chefs are embracing plant-based cuisine, as well as the explosion in fusion cooking as French cuisine is blended with culinary touches from abroad. 

Read more: Grimod de La Reyière: France’s restaurant review pioneer

One such place is Hiély-Lucullus in Avignon (Vaucluse), where Gérald Azoulay’s ‘Pérouvence’ cuisine ‘boldly fuses the flavours of Provence and Peru [his wife is Peruvian], driven by the vibrant intensity of Andean peppers and braise cooking’, says the guide, adding that ‘as part of an exemplary sustainable approach, this cuisine favours the local: 95% of products and 90% of wines come from less than 100 kilometres away.’ 

Azoulay’s dish of local Provence tomatoes with a pinch of spicy Andes pepper, piment rocoto, is a great example of his inventive combinations.

If you seek fine dining with a conscience, the Green Stars list is the place to start.

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