Comment: This may read as my bitchiest editorial yet. Nobody will thank me for raining on the parade of 15 hardworking teams of chefs and front-of-house staff whose restaurants have just been awarded the country’s first Michelin stars.
There was a proud and celebratory atmosphere at the awards at Auckland’s International Convention Centre. Intense music, a dramatic tone, Newsroom business journalist Alice Peacock tells me. I have no doubt most of the restaurants are enormously deserving winners.
So the following words may seem churlish. If I struggle now to get a reservation at Tala, or Mudbrick, or Ahi, or Logan Brown, I understand. If I’m turned away by Paul Froggatt’s two-star Essence in Queenstown, I won’t complain. (To be fair, as a journalist, I couldn’t afford the $450 tasting menu anyway.)
I suspect anyone who tries to make a reservation from a ‘newsroom.co.nz’ email is already blacklisted by Amisfield in Queenstown, after our reports on the behaviour of its ousted executive chef Vaughan Mabee, and on a council inspection that raised issues around food cooling and old pest droppings.
Amisfield’s star was accepted by head chef Sun Peng, who took charge after Mabee’s resignation and oversaw the restaurant’s clean bill of health in this year’s follow-up inspection. It was announced to a hushed crowd.
“Wild game and seasonal ingredients from Central Otago feature in the team’s ingenious, meticulous creations that meld eclectic influences,” the Michelin Guide says. “Organic wines from its own vineyards pair perfectly with the food.”
Peng describes the recognition as a dream. “This is for the team at Amisfield. It’s for the people – in the kitchen, front of house, the vineyard team, everyone from Amisfield. This is for them.”
But there’s the rub. And the bigger problem that goes beyond Amisfield’s star. This award ceremony was an unashamed marketing and publicity play by the Government, which paid $6.3 million through the International Visitor Levy to bring the Michelin Guide to New Zealand – so headlines like Amisfield’s inclusion in the awards are unhelpful.
That hushed crowd is a reminder of the industry’s silence that allowed Mabee to continue his unacceptable behaviour towards staff, especially women. It’s a discreet hush that won’t be afforded the New Zealand industry by global media.
Amisfield has been removed from the Good Food Guide, the Three Knives organisers are considering rescinding his award, Mabee’s TV show has been dropped by both TVNZ and Australia’s SBS – yet Michelin has no such scruples.
Tourism NZ chief executive René de Monchy ducks questions on Amisfield’s star. “Michelin is completely independent and they judge their own criteria,” he tells Alice Peacock. “We don’t know when they’re judging and we don’t know how frequently they’re judging. They judge the restaurant and the environment, the service and the food they get on the day.”
He hails the number of restaurants named in the guide as “pretty amazing” – but that’s facile. He knows, we know, the world knows, that the only reason any New Zealand restaurant has now been acknowledged by Michelin is because the Government paid the judges to come here.
That’s not to say most of these restaurants aren’t world class.
But compare our showing with Australia, whose government declined to pay for the privilege. Top Aussie restaurants like Saint Peter, Gimlet and Attica are regularly listed by other judges as among the best in the world, yet the “independent” Michelin judges aren’t popping across the Tasman to review them. So no Australian kitchen is on the list of 3900-plus Michelin-starred restaurants.
Similarly with India – not a single Michelin star, despite chefs around the world trying to emulate the flavours and elegance of Indian cuisines. Nor is there a single Michelin star on the entire African continent.
De Monchy says: “I think we’re quite humble about what a great offering we have here in New Zealand.”
Well, perhaps that humility is warranted, when we consider whether we really deserve so much greater culinary acclaim than Australia, India and Africa combined.
According to a 2023 study published in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, regions with a greater concentration of foreign tourists and a higher degree of internationalisation are more likely to accrue a greater number of Michelin stars.
“In this sense, policymakers and tourism managers could implement promotional activities that drive the internationalisation of tourist destinations,” write Jose Castillo-Manzano and Álvaro Zarzoso.
It’s also the case that those regions and countries that are willing to pay will accrue Michelin Stars.
Thailand paid US$4.4m (NZ$7.8m) for the Michelin Guide to review restaurants in Bangkok and other provinces; Singapore’s tourism board heavily subsidised early guides. Florida, California and Boston contributed millions to secure the three years of visits by the Michelin judges.
To this extent, the 15 restaurants are being acknowledged alongside the best in the world. They should be proud.
This is more embarrassing for the New Zealand Government, which (unless I’m forced to swallow my words) is unlikely to see its anticipated return on its investment.
And most of all, it’s embarrassing for Michelin, whose grasping pursuit of revenue has overtaken its past commitment to independence and excellence. And the New Zealand stars have highlighted that to all the world.
// To slightly offset my sceptical assessment of the stars, I do want to finish by acknowledging one of the Kiwi chefs whose restaurants won one.
Alice Peacock talked with Teresa Pert, head chef at Wellington’s Ortega Fish Shack. Pert loves that her restaurant does what it does, well, without worrying about what anyone else is doing – and we love that too. Nice as it is to win an award, Pert is more interested in delivering customers a stunning experience.
One dish that is close to Pert’s heart is Ortega’s fish sammy – described on the menu as a “teeny-weeny, creamy French toast fish sandwich”.
They’re inspired by a dish her mum used to make when she was a child. “They were a bigger version, a big fish sammy, but it didn’t have the pickles and didn’t have the little kick of lemon. It used the leftovers from the fish meal from the night before.”
Pert’s mother knew the dish was on Ortega’s menu, wasn’t able to make it to the restaurant in time to try it, before she passed away. She would be pleased to know the dish may have played a part in the award, Pert says.
“You’d like to think it would bring a few more people through the door. Last week was pretty quiet because of that horrible storm that came through. This week is obviously a different story. I’ll be back at work tomorrow.”
– additional reporting: Alice Peacock
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