Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Taillevent, the Paris restaurant that has held three Michelin stars for 34 years, lost one of the stars today, as did Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V hotel.

Opened in 1946 by Andre Vrinat, Taillevent first gained a star in 1949 with a version of the croque monsieur ham-and-cheese toasted sandwich and grabbed its third star in 1973. Today's fall comes a year after Michelin warned that it had begun to see some variation in chef Alain Soliveres's food, said Jean-Luc Naret, who oversees the Michelin & Cie. guides, which started in 1900.

``To be a three-star restaurant, you need to be perfect every day,'' Naret said in an interview today after the release of the 2007 French guide. ``We felt there was a drop in that regularity.''

Taillevent's dishes include roasted sea bass with fennel and lemon. At the Meurice, which was promoted to three stars today, the sea bass is served with scallops, caviar and whipped potatoes. Astrance, also in Paris, got a third star because chef Pascal Barbot is ``at the peak of his art,'' Michelin said.

``What surprises me is that in the past year we've received 614 unsolicited letters of congratulations from customers and only four complaints,'' said Jean-Claude Vrinat, owner and chief executive of Taillevent. ``I'm not discouraged. Sometimes a kick in the behind is a good motivator. It'll give us a second youth since we go from being an institution to a challenger.''

Michelin's move keeps at 26 the number of three-star recipients in France, with 21 retaining their rating. Among those that disappeared, Megeve-based La Ferme de Mon Pere was sold by Marc Veyrat last year. Buerehiesel, in Strasbourg, and l'Esperance, in Vezelay, were removed from the guide.

Tiny Room

The establishments promoted to three stars this year were 34- year-old Barbot's Astrance, with its tiny room that seats 25 in western Paris; Le Meurice, run by Yannick Alleno, 37, in the namesake hotel in central Paris; the Pre Catelan, with chef Frederic Anton, owned by hotel company Accor SA and located in the Bois de Boulogne, west of Paris; Lameloise, in Chagny, in the Burgundy region, and Pic, in the southeastern city of Valence.

Astrance's promotion shows Michelin is more focused on the dishes than on decor, said Pim Techamuanvivit, 35, who has her own food and restaurant review site called ChezPim and who is writing a book for young professionals on how to become food connoisseurs.

``When you're in that class of restaurant, it's not just about whether the food is delicious, it almost always is,'' she said. ``It's also about style, the composition of the colors and textures.''

The promotion of Anne-Sophie Pic, 37, the chef at her namesake restaurant, makes her the third woman in the France guide's history to have won a third star and the first since 1968. It is a family tradition. Her grandfather earned his third star in 1934 and her father garnered the same rating in 1973 at the restaurant.

`Match That'

At le Cinq, chef Philippe Legendre said he had no plans to leave the restaurant and defended his kitchen.

``Look, we're open seven days a week, 365 days a year and serve morning noon and night, ask any of my competitors to match that,'' Legendre said in an interview. ``What I know is that we've never been as full as we are today.''

Michelin added seven new two-star and 50 one-star restaurants to the France guide, which goes on sale on Feb. 28. An English- language version will be published on March 28.

Fifty-six restaurants in Europe and the U.S. are recipients of Michelin's highest, three-star rating, Naret said. In France, moving to the top level may increase revenue by 30 percent to 40 percent as reservations from international clients jump, he said.

Michelin, which sells 980,000 copies of its ``red guides'' each year, made its first foray into the U.S. in 2005 with a guide to New York City restaurants and released a San Francisco book last year. Michelin next month will announce its first Asia guide and plans to expand to new cities in the U.S., Naret said.

`Quality Ingredients'

Taillevent's demotion ended its reign as the longest-running Parisian restaurant to hold three stars, a rating created by Michelin in 1931 for provincial France and in 1933 for Paris, but suspended between 1939 and 1950 ``because of the difficulty in procuring quality ingredients.''

The record is held by the Tour d'Argent, which traces its history to 1582. It held three stars for 51 years in total, until it was demoted to two stars in 1996. It fell to one star last year. Three restaurants still operating have held three stars for at least 40 years: Paul Bocuse in Lyon, Auberge de l'Ill, in Illhaeusern, south of Strasbourg, and Troisgros, in Roanne.

Sixty-five chefs were awarded two stars this year while seven restaurants, including the Relais d'Auteuil, slipped to one star from two.

Joel Robuchon, who ``retired'' from his three-star restaurant in 1996, received two 2007 Michelin Guide stars for his Monte Carlo restaurant, promoted from one. He owns the two-star Table de Joel Robuchon in Paris and the one-star Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

The guides and maps division represents about 1 percent of revenue at Clermont Ferrand, France-based Michelin, the world's biggest tiremaker. Michelin's 2006 sales totaled 16.4 billion euros ($21.6 billion) and the guides division is profitable, Naret said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Katz in Paris at akatz5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 21, 2007 08:50 EST