Chefs in restaurants covet the Michelin star because it is renowned to increase the success of your business by way of the French Michelin brand who create tyres and also the Michelin guide.
The Michelin Guide publishes across 28 countries and cities, awarding the stars of excellence to restaurants.
Michelin Stars are notoriously difficult to obtain.
The brand Michelin hand out Stars to restaurants that they consider to be the very best in any given city. From this, the recipient of the stars gain prestige with a high reputation and exposure for their businesses and themselves, leading to more customers.
What is the Michelin Star Award?
The Awards are an annual event where Michelin judges seek out new places to award Stars to whilst continuing to assess existing Michelin Star establishments to ensure the same high standard of cooking is being maintained and offered to guests.
The Michelin Guide hands out five special awards each year based off of the final decisions from the Michelin inspectors and judges who eat out at restaurants in varying group sizes before coming back as a team to reach a final decision. There is no limit to the amount of food that a judge can sample from a restaurant before reaching a conclusion.
The yearly announcement gives details on who has won, but also who has lost, any Michelin Stars that year.
For 2022, the awards have been announced on Wednesday 16 February.
What the judges do, and don't, look for when awarding Michelin Stars?
The judges are made up of full-time employees at Michelin and take into account the following:
- quality of ingredients used by the chef
- harmony of flavours
- mystery of the techniques used
- the personality of the chef expressed through their cuisine
- consistency over time and across the menu
The consistent aspect is the most important factor taken into account by Michelin judges.
The Michelin Guide states that Stars are awarded for the food on the plate and nothing else. This thereby excludes any consideration of the style or decor of a restaurant and how formal or informal the setting is. Service also does not play a part in the awarding of stars, the guide judges state: "It’s entirely up to the restaurant to decide what style of service it wants to offer – and that has no bearing on a Michelin Star.
What do Michelin Stars mean?
The Michelin Guides are a series of guide books that have been published by the Parisian tyre company Michelin since 1904.
The Guide awards up to three Michelin Stars for excellence and outstanding cooking to a select few establishments. Acquiring or losing a star can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant.
One Michelin Star means that your restaurant is considered to be very good within its category with a quality menu and preparing cuisine to a high standard.
Two Michelin Stars are awarded "when the personality and talent of the chef are really evident in their dishes; their food is refined and inspired", the Michelin Guide. Two stars show that there is an element of uniqueness in the cooking.
Three Michelin Stars is the highest accolade and will be given "for the superlative cooking of chefs at the peak of their profession; their cooking is elevated to an art form and some of their dishes are destined to become classics." Three stars combines unique and distinct cooking with the consistency of exceptional standards.
