Margo Reuten's Da Vinci loses its Michelin star after 27 years
Michelin phoned the chef of the Maasbracht restaurant on Sunday 4 October, a day before its Dutch ceremony in Maastricht. Da Vinci held two stars from 2009 to 2018.
Margo Reuten, chef of restaurant Da Vinci in Maasbracht, in the Dutch province of Limburg, has lost the Michelin star she had held without interruption since 1999. Michelin told her by telephone on Sunday 4 October, one day before the guide's Dutch ceremony in Maastricht, regional broadcaster L1 Nieuws reports.
Reuten and co-owner Petro Kools, who runs the dining room, made the news public themselves in an Instagram post quoted by the trade titles De RestaurantKrant and Misset Horeca. “For us an unexpected and bewildering message,” they wrote. “Michelin has brought us a great deal over the years and we can do nothing other than respect the decision. But to be honest: it hurts.”
To L1 the chef said: “We did not see this coming.” She said the kitchen had cooked at the same level all those years, with the best products and a great team, and that she did not understand why that was suddenly no longer enough for a star. None of the reports read for this article carries an explanation from Michelin.
A star arrives on a stage in front of colleagues. It leaves by telephone, on a Sunday.
How Margo Reuten held a star for 27 years
Reuten received her first star in 1999 and a second in 2009, which made her the second female chef with two stars, De RestaurantKrant writes. Da Vinci lost the second star in 2018 and kept one for eight more years. L1 counts 27 consecutive years in the guide's star selection, ten of them at two stars.
The advance call is Michelin's practice of recent years, according to L1: restaurateurs who lose a star are phoned in the weekend before the presentation, so that they do not hear it in a hall full of colleagues. Misset Horeca reported a second case before this year's ceremony, Sense in Vught.
What changes at Da Vinci in Maasbracht
The owners announce no change to the restaurant. Their statement says Reuten stays in the kitchen, Kools keeps receiving guests at the table and the team carries on. “We have now lost our little crown, but nobody takes away our passion for our trade,” it reads.
Reuten told L1 that reservations rose after the news became known, and that she and Kools would still attend the presentation. “Michelin has also brought us a lot and we want to take this sportingly,” she said.
That presentation took place on Monday 5 October at 11:00 in the MECC congress centre in Maastricht. Michelin says the full selection of the 2026 guide for the Netherlands is available in digital form only from the same day; it had already named ten new Bib Gourmand restaurants in the Netherlands a week earlier. For the first time in 27 years, the list of starred kitchens does not include the one run by Margo Reuten.
