{"id":482,"date":"2011-05-11T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philonfood.com\/?p=482"},"modified":"2023-03-13T17:15:47","modified_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:15:47","slug":"what-gets-you-a-michelin-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/2011\/05\/11\/what-gets-you-a-michelin-star\/","title":{"rendered":"What gets you a Michelin star?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My wife and I have just returned after a foodie long weekend.\u00a0 It was our gift to one another for our wedding anniversary, and after toying with the idea of a European city break, we decided to do a local restaurant tour and ended up eating and staying at three different Michelin starred restaurants.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong – I\u2019m no food snob and know that a Michelin star is not the be all and end all, but these were three restaurants we really wanted to try out.<\/p>\n

The thing is though, each restaurant was very different – not the genre of food (I\u2019d guess they\u2019d each describe themselves as \u201cmodern European cuisine\u201d – I\u2019ll talk more about the food another time), but the style and atmosphere was completely different across the three.\u00a0 So it made me question what commonality got them their stars, and why have other similar restaurants not got one?<\/p>\n

Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham for example was traditional in approach.\u00a0 The front-of-house was very discrete (but chatty if you wanted it), and the room fairly simple and spaced out, so it is had quite a formal atmosphere with an a la carte menu.\u00a0 The Crown at Whitebrook, South Wales felt as much like a small boutique hotel as a gourmet restaurant, with more of an informal atmosphere, and with an optional taster menu.\u00a0 Finally the Walnut Tree near Abergavenny in South Wales felt more like a gastro-pub with bustling atmosphere, fast service and a small bar area that felt like an intimate pub.\u00a0 Interestingly, none of these were what I would call classically formal dining – they generally had manageable wine lists (no 50 page catalogues here) didn\u2019t feel stuffy or intimidating.<\/p>\n

So what is the commonality?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that the dishes are the main thing, with quality, creativity, and possibly locality and seasonality playing a part, but I suspect that consistency is key – that if you go in one day you get exactly the same standard as someone the next day.\u00a0 In our experience, premises are always of a high standard of finish, and all food (down to the bread) are generally homemade.\u00a0 From memory I think they\u2019ve always had amuse-bouche before and petit four after the meal as well.<\/p>\n

But I still don\u2019t know what gives them the edge.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what is different about say the Walnut Tree and many other restaurants of a similar style such as Stephen Terry\u2019s Hardwicke or Matt Tebbutt\u2019s Foxhunter which are both just down the road the Walnut Tree – clearly there is something, but I don\u2019t know what that is.\u00a0 Or indeed what gives Le Champignon Sauvage its second star over The Crown (maybe it\u2019s the fact that the Chef David Everitt-Matthias has never missed a service in 25 years, surely the ultimate in consistency).\u00a0 I suspect the criteria are closely guarded.<\/p>\n

I do have to say though that I am a fan of the Michelin Guide – not so much to chase stars, but for its extensive list of other commended eateries which is incredibly valuable when you are away from home.\u00a0 We bought the guide last year, and now keep it in the car and have come across a few gems in our travels – not budget-breaking fine dining establishments, just nice food pubs and restaurants that we wouldn\u2019t have otherwise known about when we are visiting an area of the country we don\u2019t know, that we know have been reviewed and recommended so that we aren\u2019t taking a gamble.\u00a0 And that is what it what it was originally written for – as a guide to help touring drivers to find decent eateries and accommodation. \u00a0I can highly recommend it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife and I have just returned after a foodie long weekend.\u00a0 It was our gift to one another for our wedding anniversary, and after toying with the idea of a European city break, we decided to do a local restaurant tour and ended up eating and staying at three different Michelin starred restaurants.\u00a0 Don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[3,10,13],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philonfood.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}