L’Assiette Champenoise, a family-run restaurant in the north-western French town of Tinqueux, is the newest member of France’s highly exclusive culinary club of establishments with three Michelin stars.

Michelin unveiled its 2014 edition of the Guide Michelin France on Friday, listing the country’s new culinary winners and losers.

L’Assiette Champenoise ’s 39-year-old proprietor, Arnaud Lallement was the only French chef to receive the coveted three-star rating this year. With that, his restaurant became one of only 27 in the country to hold the much coveted top rating. Michelin’s judges hailed Lallement’s cooking as modern and creative and rejoiced at the “noble” ingredients of his sauces.

Michelin also awarded six French restaurants a two-star rating, including La Villa Madie in Cassis, La Table du Connetable in Chantilly, and Le Chambard in Alsace. France’s slightly less exclusive two-star list expanded to a total of 79 restaurants. Similarly, the number of one-star restaurants rose to 504, with the addition of 57 new restaurants.

To compare with the international culinary scene, France comes second after Japan, which boasts 28 Michelin three-starred restaurants. Of those, 13 are located in Tokyo, compared to Paris’ 10. There are four three-starred restaurants in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

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