March 4, 2010 – L’Auberge du Vieux Puits in Corbières in the southwest of France has joined the ranks of restaurants with three stars in the latest Michelin red guide to France, which was published this week.

The number of three-star restaurants remains at 26 because La Maison de Marc Veyrat in Annecy, which had three stars, has closed.

Yam’tcha, a little Franco-Asian bistro that opened in Paris less than a year ago, received one star; La Bigarrade was elevated from one to two; and Hélène Darroze’s restaurant went from two to one.

In other honors, the Vilcek Foundation, which each year since 2000 has recognized immigrants in science, culture and the arts, is presenting culinary awards for the first time this year.

José Andrés, the Washington-based chef from Spain, is the grand-prize winner and will receive $50,000. Runners-up, who will be awarded $5,000 each, include Yoshinori Ishii, a chef from Japan at Morimoto in New York; and Nandini Mukherjee, from India, who owns Aamchi Pao in New York.

The other winners are Michael Cheng, an associate professor of culinology at Southwest Minnesota State University who is from Malaysia, and Boris Portnoy, from Russia, who is at Candybar in San Francisco.

The foundation was started in 2000 by Jan Vilcek, a professor and research scientist at the New York University School of Medicine, and his wife, Marica, an art historian, who is from the former Czechoslovakia.

A $25,000 prize for creative promise will be given to Varin Keokitvon, who is a pastry chef from Laos at Fare Start, an organization in Seattle that helps train the homeless and the needy for culinary careers.