What does it take to earn Michelin Stars?

What does it take to have one, two or even three Michelin stars as a chef or restaurant owner? Several chefs around the world gather in a recent documentary to reveal what it necessitates to achieve the world’s highest food honour, the Michelin Stars.

Understanding the Michelin Star guide

Michelin Star is a term and honour that is awarded only to restaurants that have achieved the finest dining quality. The Michelin guides consist of a series of books that were published for more than a century now by Michelin, a French tire company. As the oldest restaurant guide, restaurants have to achieve certain standards of excellence before being awarded the Michelin stars. One star means that your cuisine is very good, two stars for being exceptional and worth a detour and three stars represent exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey.

What are chefs around the world saying about the Michelin Stars?

Danish filmmaker Rasmus Dinesen’s new documentary titled Michelin Stars — Tales From The Kitchen closely follows the journey of 15 Michelin star-earning chefs (from New York, Copenhagen, and Tokyo) for two years. Premiered on September 23 during the San Sebastián International Film Festival, this documentary explores the point of view of various chefs.

Some of these chefs include Rene Redzepi, Daniel Humm, Yoshimi Tanigawa, Andoni Aduriz, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Guy Savoy, Victor Arquinzoniz, Alain Ducasse, and more. They disclose their commitments and sacrifices they’ve made over the years to earn their Michelin stars today. While some of them found the Michelin guide “lazy”, “secretive” or even “over-the-hill”, others truly believe that this guide is “a must” to achieve excellence in fine dining and cuisine.

What should viewers expect from this documentary?

Of course, since the ties between food and film run deep, the cinematography is expected to be a visual feast for the audience. Apart from that, this documentary is intriguing and promises to spellbind us with the stories shared by the famous chefs of the culinary industry.

According to the film’s description, this documentary is more than just about exposing the “greatness and flaws of the Michelin Guide”, the guide of excellence and gold standard that all chefs have been chasing in their restaurants. This documentary also seeks to “illustrate a dark flip side of the shiny coin in creating utter culinary excellence; in search of a realistic understanding of life behind the often airbrushed scenes of what is arguably the most dynamic and creative industry in the world”.

This isn’t the first attempt to expose the reality behind the Michelin guide

A few years ago, an hour-long documentary was published by the BBC, titled Michelin Stars: The Madness of Perfection. This documentary was the first film to make modern diners reflect on the Michelin guide’s relevance to the contemporary culinary experience.

It is true to say that very few would be willing to publicly criticize the highly prized Michelin guide, but in fact, many chefs are disappointed with the limited opportunities and scopes it offers, or even “its snobbery” and “fatty favourites”.

h/t: Robb Report
Also available on Zyne.ca