I’ve heard that but did Michelin ever confirm? That idea always throws me off.
Along a similar line of thought, I assume that rating is somewhat regional in the sense that inspectors don’t go back and forth between countries to rate similar restaurants.
For LA specifically, the reviewers had to eat through the city in order to develop the guide. They had to eat at restaurants that were not “Michelin worthy” as well. No doubt that it gave certain restaurants an advantage. Not because the food is empirically the best of its kind worldwide, but because it stood out within the local pack.
I would just assume that it’s harder to get a star as a French restaurant in Paris because there are so many good French restaurants. I am a bit curious as to how the diversity affected the guide in LA.
Obviously I have no idea what I’m talking about, but we’re theorizing about everything anyway right? Heh.
Michelin Guide editors or senior inspectors or whatever they are do visit places all over the world.
Thank you for the links!
I just meant that it would seem unlikely that reviewers would fly back and forth between restaurants, and would probably review a given area in its entirety. As in, they probably would not visit a French restaurant in LA, fly to Paris for reference, and then come back and keep eating. Or would they. Haha.
I recently reread the newyorker article you linked and I think “M” says that most of the restaurants she went to aren’t ending up in the guide. Would it be safe to assume that it gives certain restaurants an advantage in LA?
…we’ll find out on the next episode of Dragonball Z.
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All Michelin inspectors train for six months in France, so for that cuisine, they have a benchmark.
In the criminal justice system…
Right, but for other cuisines which they don’t have benchmarks for, I think it may come down to just what is the tastiest in LA, rather than how does it compare to things like it world-wise.
I’ve read that all junior inspectors are accompanied by senior inspectors and most guides have locals doing the inspections so that should, theoretically speaking, help alleviate concerns in regards to lacking knowledge in a specific cuisine.
But let’s be honest here, my friends in Hong Kong are locals but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they know what’s good or know what they’re talking about. On the other hand, my coworker is Mexican but I know more about tacos than she does and she never even had aquachile in her life! So there’s that! I don’t necessarily agree with the notion that only locals can judge local food. Case in point, Fuchsia Dunlop, a white British woman, probably knows more about Chinese cuisine in general than 95% of the Chinese population.
must’ve been a pretty good local guide if they could navigate that Jitlada menu
eeeze now… i tip fine provided basic service.
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Certainly doesn’t work that way in the SF guide. There are great places that are ignored because they’re not sufficiently French or Japanese.
they can’t even spell it correctly
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LA is a whole different animal than SF. I thought so too but after seeing the Bibs I feel like Michelin is taking a more open approach to LA. While there are no Night+Market type places with stars in SF, SF has a much different dining ethos than LA. NYC certainly does have many similarly casual places which do have stars. When they were omitted from Bib’s and some clearly inferior counterparts got Bibs, and clearly they are in the price point, I feel like they might get a star. Maybe not, who knows. I feel like every city has a token starred Thai place though. SF and NY did, and NY has had a LARGE number of very mediocre Thai places that have held a star at one point only to lose the star the next year. Ranging from Zaab Elee to Pok Pok to Somtum Der and Rhong-Tiam.
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SF’s dining ethos isn’t that different from LA’s. The high end is different, but that’s not what most locals eat most of the time. Hawker Fare is similar to Night+Market. No Thai place in LA had a star in 2009, only one of the seven in the guide had a Bib.
The only Thai place in the SF guide with a star is Kin Khao, which is a very ambitious, fine-dining take on Thai food. Its chef Pim Techamuanvivit is now at Nahm in Bangkok.
For a city well known for its Korea cuisines, it’s surprising Dha Rae Oak is the only one on the list, a place with only 71 Yelp reviews and a somewhat low rating at that. Never been there, but it seems a conspicuous addition compared to a lot of more acclaimed places that I don’t see being saved for the 1 star rank.
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Which is why Michelin is a shitty fit for LA. I have no problems giving the fine dining crown in California to NoCal. NoCal can have it.
Local Angelenos want their nouveau porridge/huitlacoche quesadilla/uni mazemen/24hr galbi jjim served out of a truck window/mini-mall/some dude’s backyard spit in Lynwood far more often than they want a tired fine-linened château with deux étoiles…
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Given the amount of attention just the Bibs generated today, it looks like plenty of local Angelenos care what Michelin has to say. Next week, get ready for a record amount of discussion about the Los Angeles dining scene from both Angelenos and people from across the world.
You sorely overestimate the reach of our humble little food geek website.
You wouldn’t happen to be working with the Michelin Guide or CA Tourism Board, right?
No. Do you work for a competitor of Michelin’s? I don’t get why else anyone would have a personal vendetta against them because they are literally just rating restaurants that they like, just like you and me. They just happen to be someone that a lot of people trust. If you don’t trust them, than that’s totally fine.
There has been plenty of discussion about the list in the press and on social media, not on this website. I’m not counting but there must be hundreds of articles out about this. And it’s just the bibs.
As an Angeleno who’s been an enthusiastic follower of our local food culture and SoCal dining scene for many many years, I feel just as strongly against Michelin coming to L.A. as you (a denizen of the Bay Area) are for it.
And I’ve made my feelings about this issue clear on this board - long, LONG before Michelin decided to return to LA.
Seriously? Is there even a competitior to Michelin? Oh yeah, now that I think about it, there is: Our local opinions and hopes for the evolution of food in Los Angeles.
Michelin is a media machine, no doubt. But it doesn’t mean we must all buy in. I choose to resist.
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Michelin is just a group of people like you and me. It seems odd and slightly mean you would be AGAINST a group of people visiting and sharing their thoughts about your city. That’s like you telling me you are against me visiting LA and writing up my thoughts about the restaurants I visited because I’m a “shitty fit” . You can choose to ignore and resist, but don’t prevent other people from sharing their thoughts.
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