The 44-year old French Top Chef Benoît Violier was found lifeless in his apartment with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Crissier, Switzerland, Sunday, Jan. 31. His cause of death was believed to be suicide.

"Violier shot himself to death," Swiss authorities have said. 

Violier's passing came as a surprise for people who personally knew him especially that he was at the peak of his career. In fact, his Restaurant de l'Hôtel de Ville, in Crissier near Lausanne, was recently named as the World's Best Restaurant by the French Foreign Ministry La Liste, last Dec. 2015. Back in 2013, he was also named as the Chef of the Year by Gault et Millau guide.

"I feel a heavy responsibility to be named number one," Chef Benoît Violier told the New York Times shortly after he gained the recognition from the Foreign Ministry.

As posted by CNN, the giants of the French culinary field have paid tribute through their social media accounts to express their feelings towards the French-Swiss Chef's death. Marc Veyrat, a three-star chef, said that he was "destroyed" when he learned about Violier's death. Veyrat posted in his Tweeter account: "The planet has been orphaned by this exceptional chef."

Pierre Gagnaire, also known as the "biggest star chef in the world," has tweeted, "Terribly sad news for an extremely talented chef. My thoughts go out to Benoit Violier's family. Very sad news about an extremely talented chef."

Violier's passing came hours before the prestigious Gastronomic Bible Michelin. It is the oldest European hotel and restaurant guide whose ratings could either give recognition to Chefs and their restaurants or break their dreams into pieces. That's why maintaining a rating is so intense where a maximum of three stars are awarded, as reported by The Guardian.

"I hope that the stress of this number-one ranking is not the cause," Chef Gagnaire said in an interview with the Swiss newspaper 24 Heueres.

In 2003, the French cuisine was also shocked by the death of Bernard Loiseau, a three-star chef, who has committed suicide after being distraught with his restaurant's criticism and rumors about him losing his third star.

In an interview with a local channel in Switzerland last Dec. 2014, Violier shared that the stress every chef experience in the field is necessary to be able to maintain a good standard for French cuisines. He also shared the passion he has in French culinary arts saying, "It's my life. I go to sleep with cooking, I wake up to cooking."