PARIS • French chef Sebastien Bras, who had shocked the culinary world by handing back his Michelin stars, was stunned on Monday to find himself back in the prestigious guide's new edition with two stars.

He cited the "huge pressure" that came with the recognition when he asked in September 2017 for his three-star restaurant Le Suquet to be left out of the 2018 guide.

"This contradictory decision has left us with doubts, even if in any case we no longer worry about either the stars or the strategies of the guide," he said in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse.

He took over the kitchen at Le Suquet from his father Michel a decade ago.

The elder Bras had held three Michelin stars since 1999, and his son said that knowing a single below-par dish could cost him his reputation had created unbearable pressure as a chef.

"You're inspected two or three times a year, you never know when," he said in 2017.

"That means that every day, one of the 500 meals that leave the kitchen could be judged. Maybe I will be less famous, but I accept that," he noted of dropping out of the Michelin guide.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE