The 2011 Michelin Guide Announcements

Although I found the Michelin Guide to be somewhat baffling, the chefs who were granted stars clearly felt otherwise, and they expressed themselves to me emphatically at the Michelin announcement ceremony held last week in the Woolworth Building.

 

 

 

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Comments

[NatOnline]

12:53 PM on 10/23/2010

Am I the only one who thinks that Michelin dining is getting boring? These identikit restaurants who dance to the Michelin tune seem to churn our meals cooked with precision, but lack that special something that makes food exciting. A big injection of fun is what's needed!

[Cookie100]

05:47 PM on 10/17/2010

Michelin stars, ah. Yes well, I wound up eating at 3 Alan Ducass restaurants in Paris a few years ago, wlthough after the first I should have known better. Not worth the very expensive cost, and neither of the 3 were worth it. The best place are small and definately not on the high streets.

[Jennifer Gilbert-Soto]

01:23 AM on 10/17/2010

The Michelin star is a huge honor for any restaurant/ chef to receive. However , I do think politics is playing too much of a roll these days. Many innovative,passionate and crazy talented chefs are being overlooked. Although most of the stars awarded are well deserved I would like to see some of the "hidden gems" get discovered and some recognition.

[yappnmutt]

04:56 AM on 10/16/2010

it's inspiring to listen to people talk about food and the restaurant business today from a perspective of 40 years ago when the french were the only recognized masters and everything else was derided as ethnic food (even italian food) or american meat and potatoes. even back then as today the best food is still in the neighborhoods that make you feel uncomfortable because you are the outsider whether it's the local italian deli in schenectady or the haitian restaurant on sunrise blvd. michelin represents good food but is still puffery for the puffery obsessed.

[SpikeC]

09:01 PM on 10/16/2010

And ironically, French cuisine stems from Italian! Catherine DeMedici brought cuisine to France!

[GeorgiaVeteran]

01:19 PM on 10/17/2010

True, but French cuisine evolved quite differently because the terroir is much different. Even the wines are dramatically different. One must remember that tomatoes (for example) were unknown in Italy before they were brought back from the Americas.

[AngusC]

10:24 PM on 10/15/2010

I would walk over broken glass to try these guys food.
Unfortunately I live in Michigan which is just horrible for food...

[plazma]

10:45 PM on 10/15/2010

I live in Michigan also.. but you act like you are stuck here and can never travel to a new place... 5 hours west to Chicago for a ton of great places like WD50, Frontera Grill and many others. Take a weekend trip to NYC to try a bunch of places. Less excuses and just do it... I like Eric, but he doesnt blow me away like a lot of other chefs. I would rather walk over broken glass for Ferran Adria or Heston Blumenthal than the people they mentioned in this video.

[AngusC]

10:03 AM on 10/16/2010

The point is I should not have to travel to go get good food.
I don't know how you are incapable of inferring that genius....

[Talossa]

12:14 AM on 10/16/2010

Go to the UP, you can get pasties. :-)

[liberalbug]

08:52 PM on 10/15/2010

I've never been able to afford to eat in a starred restaurant. Maybe someday I'll be able to afford to see what all the fuss is about.

[leopoldmozart]

12:14 AM on 10/16/2010

It's the sort of thing you have to prepare for. I live on a teacher's salary. The way I think of it, I deny myself 5 Starbucks lattes ($25) and 5 mediocre meals at El Torito or TGIFridays ($60) and then go to an awesome restaurant. It's totally worth it.

[Americatheteenager]

06:51 PM on 10/17/2010

Denying yourself the bad coffee sold at Starbucks is the greatest trade off :)

[Level7]

08:41 PM on 10/17/2010

You can have a transcendent food experience at a tiny hole in the wall or on the street, jsut as you can in a starred restaurant. It's about the food, not the stars. I love starred restaurants, but you don't need them to taste amazing food.

[unami]

04:45 PM on 10/15/2010

I keep waiting for the Michelin Guide critics to recognize the genius behind the chicken nugget McDonalds meat paste, AKA mechanically separated chicken-but they never seem to.

[Talossa]

12:14 AM on 10/16/2010

The McNugget was indeed invented by a French chef, or so I heard?

[chairman1969]

02:26 PM on 10/15/2010

snobby eaters.. what a useless bunch of people

[SADWING]

03:18 PM on 10/15/2010

You couldn't be more wrong. Enjoy your Happy Meal.

[chairman1969]

06:08 PM on 10/15/2010

I can eat fine with out having anything to do with anyone on that tire company guide. Once again, snobby eater = useless

[Thomas Fleming]

02:23 PM on 10/15/2010

Michelin is way too Euro centric..Asia has the best chefs and food by far.

[PWMartin]

03:32 PM on 10/15/2010

Sure, just like they have the best music and film.

[biodieselvw]

04:23 PM on 10/15/2010

You've obviously never seen any Bollywood movies...

[Thomas Fleming]

06:25 PM on 10/15/2010

I guess you're not a big traveler.

[plazma]

10:57 PM on 10/15/2010

Asia does have a lot of good restaurants, but Europe is where its breaking loose all the time with new things.... of mixing the old with the new. The French were the ones who really mastered the art of cooking when it came to a lot of things, especially with chefs like Marie-Antoine Carême and Georges Auguste Escoffier.

[Womanvoter4Obama]

02:19 PM on 10/15/2010

Jean Georges lost a star in pastry? I had dinner there earlier in the summer and that was the best part of the meal. I couldn't wait to get to dessert! I don't eat like that often so it was a treat in a half and it looked like artwork being presented to you..and tasted so so so so so good! (Stored in my memory banks because I'm laid off and don't know when I'll have another night like that..but I'm glad I got to enjoy it while I could.)

[Colin Sterling]

03:30 PM on 10/15/2010

It was hard to understand him but he lost a star at Perry Street. Jean Georges and its pastries retained their three Michelin stars.

[Womanvoter4Obama]

03:38 PM on 10/15/2010

Thank you it was hard to hear it! I haven't been to the Perry Street location. I went to the Central Park West location.

[Jeffrey T Armstrong]

01:01 PM on 10/15/2010

One decides early in their culinary career if they are fortunate to work with one of the worlds master chefs if they will seek this path. It's like sports. One can put in 8 hours a day and love it and maybe make the minor leagues and have a good life. These guys are the Pros and a Star is the difference between comfortable and wealthy. The star brings millions of dollars extra into the business.

[plazma]

12:42 PM on 10/15/2010

Im starting to wonder about the whole Michelin star thing... I think these chefs kill themselves for these things and give up their lives and others to achieve this mystical star. I know a lot of people in the UK have given up on this, cause its not important to them anymore.. its more about just putting out good food instead of worrying about who is lurking around the corner waiting to judge them.
I know if I was a chef in that position, I would rather not stress out over things like this at all. 18 hour days, 7 days a week is not living... I know these people have a passion for cooking, but has that passion turned more into an obsession to achieve greatness by a group of people who have them by the short hairs all the time. I like the way a lot of these new chefs are going, instead of a fussy dining experience, just make it more about the food and not about the pretentiousness.

[No1 ILoveLucyFan]

01:03 PM on 10/15/2010

F&F.

[GraphicMatt]

01:10 PM on 10/15/2010

I know plenty of chefs with no stars that still kill themselves....hell, I ran the front of the house for years and had little to no life.

[Fretslayer]

12:32 PM on 10/15/2010

Eric Ripert is a pretty funny guy at times.

[tlaltecuhtli]

06:16 PM on 10/15/2010

Yes. And as fine as the pastry and desserts essayed by his kitchen, none can hold a candle to him. The guy is freakin' gorgeous.

[nkadzi]

07:24 PM on 10/15/2010

Oh friend, absolutely...Eric is indeed..freaking gorgeous.

[tiger313]

12:29 PM on 10/15/2010

I'm more interested in what Tony Bourdain has to say about food, but even he gives props to some of these fine dining chefs.

[plazma]

12:46 PM on 10/15/2010

What does Bourdain have to do with any of this? He is one person that you only know about because he has a TV show. I think if he was still cooking instead of doing TV, he would tell the whole Michelin team to bugger off. He just says what he likes, but it doesn't mean that everything he says is right. I agree with him on most things, but not everything. Taste is subjective and everyone is different when it comes to that.

[GraphicMatt]

01:12 PM on 10/15/2010

Apparently Bourdain rubbed a lot of chefs the wrong way after he published his first book. Granted, he wasn't off base at all in it, but nobody wants their dirty little habits aired out for those not in the biz.

[Carline Noailles]

03:59 PM on 10/15/2010

In his last show in Paris, he went with Eric Rupert whom he admires and is a great freind of his. The talked about the Michelin stars and the foodie movment in Paris. Great show --

[Jeffrey T Armstrong]

01:03 PM on 10/15/2010

I love Bourdain but he will admit he was a good cook and not that great of a chef. While I do appreciate his contribution to our food culture he could never hold a flame to these guys.

[CaLaWyer]

07:10 PM on 10/15/2010

You're right on both counts. Bourdain was not a great chef, and he does admit this. His major contribution to food culture has been through his writing and his TV show. Howerver, I believe that in his role as pied piper, Bourdain has done more to raise appreciation in the U.S. for fine dining than Ripert, Boulud, and Jean Georges combined (although those chefs have been the clear beneficiaries of Bourdain's work). Yes, they would still be successful, and well-known among the food elite. But because of Bourdain, there are a hello of a lot more people who, rightly or wrongly, consider themselves part of the "food elite", and are clamoring to get a table at Le Bernardin, Vong, et al.

And, BTW, Bourdain may not have been an elite chef, but he ran a damn good restaurant. I ate at "Brasserie Les Halles" while he was still its executive chef, and it was fantastic. Hanger steak was as good as anything I've had at Ruth's Chris or Morton's, and his foie gras was the best I've had, anywhere.