Yesterday, Instagram was ablaze with well-deserved celebrations in dining rooms across the country. Michelin released their annual guide, recognising the extraordinary talent that stands behind stoves in the UK. We are an island luminous with stars — on this week’s count, more than 200.
The tyre company’s guide to good food offered a heartening toast to our restaurants, recognising the cocktail of innovation and grit that seems to be the hospitality sector’s signature. London fared particularly well, and the 2022 guide speaks to a city that can make a fair claim to being the food capital of the world — a claim that even just two decades ago would have had Parisians and New Yorkers snorting with derision.
Our collection of two Michelin star restaurants, presently at 10 (out of the UK’s total of 22), now includes both the Clove Club and Ikoyi. The Clove Club redefined the idea of “modern British”; Ikoyi forged fine dining with West African spices, not a combination widely seen in Mayfair. In Michelin’s droll underplaying of its ranking, two stars signifies “excellent cooking, worth a detour.” I’ll say.
Of the seven one stars newly awarded, two — Marylebone Mexican Kol and Southwark’s ground-breaking Korean Sollip — managed to haul their shutters open for the first time in the pandemic. Another, Layo Paskin’s Soho spot Evelyn’s Table, was completely refitted and refurbed, reopening with a new kitchen team to boot. That team — the Selby brothers of Luke, Nat and Theo — were also jointly named as Michelin’s young chef of the year. To get a star at any time is quite something; to get one while the world collapses is something else.
Others were winners who seemed worthy long ago; I’d have put money on Anthony Demetre’s Wild Honey St James already having a star (I’d have lost that money). Adam Handling, meanwhile, has longed for a star since I first met him back in 2017. That he has finally realised his dream is cheering: 12 months after Covid first hit, he’d lost two restaurants, a bar and a coffee shop, only keeping his business afloat and staff employed by selling his house. Following his prestigious gig cooking for the G7, this star is testament to the extraordinary way he has rallied after teetering on the edge of despair. I felt for the man.
With just one demotion — Céleste at The Lanesborough lost a star — the 2022 guide is a good’un. Chefs like to grumble about Michelin making a hash of things, but even those who pretend otherwise tend to spend the announcement wondering if their gaff will get name-checked, partly for prestige, partly for the consequent boost in trade. But don’t let the Guide end up the be all and end all. Countless places have been overlooked, like French House, Gauthier, Otto’s, Kudu, and even Riva, which is Fay Maschler’s and was AA Gill’s favourite restaurant. They’re some of London’s best. This year’s awards were merely an affirmation of what many of us already know: London has some stonking places to eat. Here’s hoping the inspectors get to them all next year.
In other news...
Pete Davidson, Ye and Kim — the mother of all public bust-ups
Poor Pete Davidson — the Saturday Night Live comic must be wondering how he ended up in the mother of all public bust-ups. The star could have been forgiven for thinking that his hook-up with Kim Kardashian might simply be the next in a series improbable romances (he evidently has something going for him, given his list of exes include Ariana Grande, Kaia Gerber and Kate Beckinsale). For a while Kim’s ex Ye seemed content to do double denim with Julia Fox, but the rapper has since attempted to win his wife back — and things have turned nasty. Ye’s raging has gone so far that this week he had to tell his followers not to harm the stand-up. Davidson, on the other hand, reached out by texting West that “I do hope [some] day… we can all be friends”. So far that is looking highly unlikely — as West’s addictive Instagram would suggest.
What do you think about Michelin’s 2022 annual guide? Let us know in the comments below.
