PARIS — Chef Benoit Violier, whose 3-star restaurant in western Switzerland with its game specialties recently topped a list of the world’s best, has been found dead of a probably self-inflicted gunshot, police said Monday. He was 44.

Police said in a statement that Mr. Violier was found dead in his home late Sunday afternoon in the municipality of Crissier, near Lausanne, home of his prestigious Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville. An investigation has been opened to determine the exact circumstances of the death, but police are ‘‘99 percent certain’’ the cause of death is suicide with a firearm, police commissioner Jean-Christophe Sauterel said by phone from Lausanne.

The Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville serves dishes such as saddle of Pyrenean young lamb, crispy Landes duck foie gras, and a so-called “back from winter hunting’’ dish, depending on daily deliveries. Last year, the eatery was ranked first on a French government-sponsored list of the world’s top 1,000 restaurants. Another renowned and influential guide of best restaurants, GaultMillau Suisse, had declared Mr. Violier the best chef of 2013, citing his “new and staggering’’ cuisine and granting him an exceptional 19/20, the same score as his famous predecessor and mentor in the Hotel de Ville, Philippe Rochat, who died last year.

Mr. Violier, who was born in the western French city of Saintes was only 20 when he started to train in the finest cuisine with world-famous chefs such as Joel Robuchon. He arrived at Crissier’s Restaurant de l’Hotel de Ville in 1996, two years before it got its third Michelin star, the most coveted award in the culinary world.

Mr. Violier took over the establishment in 2012 with his wife, Brigitte, and managed to keep the top position in the famous red guide.