The most influential of all is the French Michelin Guide. It's been the gourmet's bible for the past 105 years. Michelin gives top eateries stars and if quality is deemed to have slipped, takes them away.

Efforts to catch and keep stellar status have ruined the health, private life, and financial fortunes of more than one chef. "Made in Germany" reporter Dorothea Topf visited the gourmet paradise "Traube Tonbach" in the Black Forest. Chef Harald Wohlfahrt tells her what it's like to be awarded three stars and defend them.

The 3 star chef still doesn't know that everything's in the balance today. His reputation and his three stars. The highest honor for a chef de cuisine: "Every day a new situation, every day brings fresh demands, and I mean, you can go from no-one to a hundred.

Nothing's happened yet. Forty guests could arrive in ten minutes, give their orders and naturally our adrenalin rate shoots up. And we have to carry everything out, fully concentrated, under fairly stressful conditions. And as a chef, you have to be very, very able to work under pressure."

And you need a good team. Twenty-one chefs and serving staff work closely together here. Harald Wohlfahrt's reservation books are full to the end of the year.Thirty guests are expected in two hours time but Wohlfahrt is still waiting for the lobsters, crayfish and mussels: "The goods have to arrive by midday. Otherwise we've got a problem. If we have items on the menu but we haven't got them in store, then we can't offer them to the customers."

Still, they're getting on with things in the kitchen. But Wohlfahrt doesn't need to worry about his wines. He has thirty-six thousand bottles stored down in the cellar an enormous investment: "Here we have the real treasures. Well look, here's one. This is very exclusive. This 97 Hermitage from La Chapelle. As I say, it's a Hermitage wine. It really is very, very special."

The bottle costs 260 euros in the restaurant a bargain compared with the other wines. Wohlfahrt reckons his cellar is worth half a million euros and he needs to recoup his investment. The fish merchant arrives just in time. Lobsters costing thirty euros apiece. They're prepared immediately.

The guests have arrived. Today, there are some very special guests ... somewhere in this room are inspectors from the Michelin Guide. But the chef still has no idea an takes care of the gourmet-group: "They've got ten sardine tartares. Then ten lobster rosettes. And afterwards they're having ten stuffed saddles of rabbit as the main course, then ten servings of cheese from the cheeseboard, followed by ten desserts."

A menu for 108 euros, without drinks. The owner calls in, but he has no idea about the important visitors either. There's a lot at stake for him, because the three star restaurant is the main attraction for his hotel. The highlight of this gourmet meal is the stuffed saddle of rabbit. While guests at this table celebrate a birthday, hidden away in a corner, the Michelin inspectors secretly check Wohlfahrt's creation.

The food critics only come clean later, in a private discussion that we are not allowed to film. Harald Wohlfahrt takes it easy: "They introduced themselves afterwards, saying they were from Michelin head office ... on a test visit. They simply asked for some information about the place. And then I just asked whether everything was satisfactory, and they assured me that it was. So we can simply say that this time, our visitors found everything in order."

Time for a breather on the roof terrace. The inspectors have left. Wohlfahrt has kept his three stars this time. But no-one knows when the inspectors will be back.

Via Deutsche Welle