Michelin has released their first guide to dining in New York City, ending months of anticipation and endless speculation by New York foodies. While Michelin does a respectable job identifying the better restaurants in France and awarding them for their achievements, the general feeling is that their guides to other European countries and cities are less consistent. In fact, some people feel that outside of France, Michelin misses the boat completely.
It was against this backdrop that the guide announced they were awarding stars to 39 New York establishments. Had Michelin done a better job in New York than they have done elsewhere? A quick glance at the list showed that Michelin did a fairly good job identifying the city’s top restaurants, and one could not take much exception with their two and three star choices. But if you continue on to the one star awards, this is where the guide seems to have gone off the reservation with inclusions that are undeserving, some to the point of being ridiculous, as well as omissions of restaurants that people in the food would have thought were no-brainers.
A closer look at the list shows the following. The three stars restaurants, Per Se, Jean Georges, Alain Ducasse at the Essex House and Le Bernardin, and the two star restaurants, Bouley, Daniel, Masa, and Danube, were all reasonable selections. I do take somewhat of an issue with Le Bernardin getting three stars. In the case of Le Bernardin, while I believe Eric Ripert is capable of turning out three-star cuisine, based on my own experiences as well as multiple reports from people I trust, the restaurant usually falls a bit short of that standard. I think it fits better alongside Daniel in the two star category. Danube seems to be overrated as well. It might be a two star in concept, but the execution seems more like what you will find at a one star restaurant. But all of the wisdom Michelin demonstrated in the two and three star categories seems to have disappeared when it came to awarding restaurants a single star, and there seems to be little rhyme or reason for how they chose the 31 restaurants in that category. I've done a short analysis of their selections, breaking them down into categories of deserving, those that one can justify on some basis, and undeserving, those that can’t be justified and would not have been awarded a star if they were located in France.
Deserving – Babbo, Café Boulud, Craft, Cru, Gramercy Tavern, Jewel Bako, Lever House, March, Nobu, Oceana, Peter Luger, The Modern, Veritas, WD-50
Undeserving – Annisa, Café Grey, Etats Unis, Fleur de Sel, Gotham Bar & Grill, JoJo, La Golue, Picholine, Saul, Spotted Pig, Vong ,Wallse.
Compounding matters is the list of important restaurants they failed to award any stars to. Blue Hill, a restaurant that uses the same culinary theories and techniques that you will find at two and three star restaurants like L'Astrance and Arpege, as well as some of the top places in Spain, and which uses the very best market ingredients, was overlooked, as was Marcus Samuelsson’s very good Aquavit. How do you overlook Samuelsson, an inventor of modern Swedish cuisine, while awarding a star to places that can barely cook food properly like Picholine or Café Gray? Then there is the case of Chanterelle. While never a personal favorite of mine, it is light years ahead of half of the restaurants on the list.. And what is the rationale for awarding a star to Jewel Bako, and not doing the same for Sushi Yasuda, Karumazushi, and Sugiyama? Finally, awarding stars to Etats Unis, La Golue, and Spotted Pig, places that are no better than a neighborhood restaurant, a brasserie filled with a mostly society clientele, and a not-very-gastro gastropub, respectively, is just inexplicable.
Fortunately, in the midst of this pile of rubble, Michelin, by awarding two stars to only a handful of restaurants, and by passing over restaurants like Babbo and Gramercy Tavern for the two star category, delineated the difference between the fine dining experience and what I always describe as the upper middle. For years, fans of restaurants in the upper middle category argued that they were every bit as good, if not better, than places like Jean Georges and Bouley, an argument that the New York Times and the Zagat Guide helped fuel by awarding those restaurants higher scores than they really deserved. Now Michelin has come forward with credible third party confirmation that they just aren’t worthy of being included in the very top dining category.
So a mixed result from Michelin their first time out of the box in the U.S. Maybe next year some of the choices that don’t make any sense will be demoted, and some of the restaurants that were overlooked but deserving will earn one. Until then, people who rely on the guide will end up at places like Café Gray instead of places like Blue Hill. I guess that’s good for those of us who know where to get a good meal in this town. Those of us, that is, who know better than Michelin.
The inconsistencies were amazing - unfortuneately I think the Michelin is going to veer from its roots and in the US be more swayed by PR, fashion and the rest. The very opposite of what it does and why its so respected in Europe.
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One of the reasons I admire Thatcher is because she was clever, curious and well-informed. I think you need to get over your class analysis of this situation. I also think the idea of a conservative who has no time for the concept of the 'better' is a contradiction of terms.
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For a few time, it was my number one guide when discussing dinners or places to go to dinner. Now my phone and the web are providing me better information, plus I dont have to go around with a book.
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