PARIS • Chef Marc Veyrat can take the heat in the business, including the burning down of his restaurant.

And so it proved, with the comeback king of French cuisine back at the top of the pecking order on Monday after the Michelin guide for France awarded him the maximum three stars.

The flamboyant chef, rarely seen without his black Savoyard hat, has won the rating for three restaurants in his career.

Nine years ago, he was forced to give up cooking after a serious skiing accident. Three years ago, his alpine restaurant, La Maison des Bois, went up in flames.

Famed for his highly inventive creations that mix delicate infusions of wild herbs with hearty traditional Savoyard cooking, he is one of only two chefs promoted this year to the three-star club.

A self-taught master who has spent most of his life cooking in his home village of Manigod 1,600m up the Alps near Annecy, he has twice been given a 20-out-of-20 score by the rival Gault-Millau guide.

Michelin's international director Michael Ellis also cheered the continued rise of Japanese chefs in France, with two new two-starred restaurants - Takao Takano's eatery in Lyon and Masafumi Hamano's Au 14 Fevrier in the Saone-et-Loire region.

Three other Japanese chefs got a star for the first time. Ryunosuke Naito's Pertinence and Takayuki Nameura of Montee the Pertinence - both in Paris - got the nod.

Takashi Kinoshita, who cooks at the Chateau de Courban in northern Burgundy, also made the grade.

"Japanese chefs have great technical skills and their cooking can be extremely precise," Mr Ellis said.

"France and Japan have lots in common, particularly in respect for ingredients," he added.

Veyrat's organic alpine vegetable gardens around his rebuilt restaurant make it almost self-sufficient.

He has also pioneered the use of wild mountain herbs in broths and fermentations.

Mr Ellis said Veyrat has earned himself an important place in culinary history. "It is very difficult to make characterful food with herbs, flowers and plants, but he does it," he said, picking out a dish of egg, hay and wood sorrel served with ravioli of "forgotten vegetables" as particularly brilliant.

Renowned fish cook Christophe Bacquie of the Castellet Hotel in the Var region was also awarded a third star for the first time.

The 45-year-old is best known for his Mediterranean-influenced recipes, including John Dory, crab and caviar served in a perfumed cream of kaffir lime.

Only 28 chefs hold three stars in the Michelin guide. Last week, for the first time, it allowed a top French restaurant to bow out of its listings after its chef said he no longer wanted to work under the "huge pressure" of being judged.

Sebastien Bras' Le Suquet restaurant in the Aveyron region had held the three-star rating for 18 years.

This year, the guide is launching a mentoring scheme led by Anne-Sophie Pic, the only woman with three stars in France, to help chefs cope with the pressure.

She said: "It is a great boost to get a star, but there is also extra pressure, as well as the fear of losing it. It can be a steamroller.

"With more and more people wanting to book a table at your restaurant, their expectations also rise."

The Michelin guide for France, whose ratings are based on two or three visits by unannounced inspectors, will be published on Friday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE