It earned one star in the Michelin Guide in its first year, and earned two soon thereafter. It earned three Michelin stars in 1996, which it has maintained since.[2][3]
Two of its chefs have been challengers on Iron Chef, the popular cooking competition show on Fuji TV in Japan. Passard represented France in the 1997 Iron Chef World Cup in Kyoto and beat American Patrick Clark with homard lobster as the theme in the Western semifinal before tying Iron Chef Japanese Komei Nakamura in the final with foie gras as the theme. Passard then faced Iron Chef French Hiroyuki Sakai as the final challenger with long gang chicken as the theme in a battle to determine the world's best chef, with Sakai winning narrowly.
Tetsuya Shimada, a Japanese chef who worked at Arpège from 1987 until his return to Japan in 1992 as the restaurant's seafood specialist after Passard recognized his skills, also faced Sakai in an earlier battle, which Sakai won with black truffles as the theme.
