How are these restaurants selected? ?
Of course, the restaurant is chosen by people and professionals. Michelin judges are all professional veterans in the catering and hotel industry. They work full-time for Michelin, and each person travels an average of about 30,000 kilometers a year, spending most of their time on roads, restaurants and hotels. Michelin judges all visit the candidate restaurants anonymously. Like ordinary customers, order food, order food, eat and pay. Only in rare cases (such as when they need more information about the restaurant) will Michelin judges identify themselves, but this must be after eating and paying the bill. The anonymous selection process ensures that Michelin judges can get the same experience as ordinary diners, so that all restaurants can compete on a daily basis. But it's not over yet. Behind the birth of every star-rated restaurant, there are many unannounced visits by judges, and it is rare to get Michelin guides. Even if it is obtained, the Michelin guide will be updated every year, and the restaurant's evaluation may change. If the level drops too much, you may also be kicked out of the recommendation. In addition, Michelin stars are only awarded to certain restaurants. If the restaurant opens a branch elsewhere, even if the team uses the original employees, the branch will not automatically get Michelin stars, but needs to be reassessed.
What are the specific standards? ?
To put it simply, Michelin guide selection strictly follows five criteria: the grade of ingredients, the integration of cooking skills and tastes, the degree of innovation, the value for money, and the consistency of cooking standards. But it's hard to do. Consistency alone is enough to eliminate a large number of domestic restaurants. In fact, it's not just domestic? Nakazawa Tomohide, a new york star sushi highly recommended by The New York Times, didn't even get a Michelin star because of lack of consistency. ?
Whether the food is delicious varies from person to person, even Michelin is hard to be objective.
That's not true. Although your taste preference will affect your opinion of a restaurant, for Michelin, its choice is only related to the level of food. Whether it is ingredients, cooking skills, innovation level, cost performance or consistency, it has nothing to do with personal taste. Michelin judges are very professional. If you are a new judge, you will be trained by experienced judges for a long time to ensure that you can adopt the globally consistent evaluation criteria of Michelin Guide before you can work alone. Therefore, apart from their extraordinary sensitivity to the quality of ingredients and strict requirements for food, they are also very objective!