Every year, the prestigious Michelin Guide announces its ratings of restaurants around the world, and Texas feels a pang of envy. Our state has a glittering dining scene with culinary stars, but Michelin inspectors don’t pass through Texas. Currently, the guide covers most of Europe, major cities across East Asia and a handful of US markets: New York, Chicago, California, three cities in Florida and Washington, D.C. A Toronto guide debuts this fall. It’s only natural that diners in other markets are wondering when Michelin might arrive.
of Dallas Morning NewsClaire Ballor recently did a great job talking to both Michelin representatives and culinary leaders in Texas. She asked many questions: do we think it will happen? When? How would Dallas change if it did? (Morning news The writers followed up on that question in a podcast episode. You have to hear the whole thing, but Ballor says the stars can“level the playing field” among top restaurants and inspire chefs to do better work.)
How does Michelin decide to expand into a market? (Florida essentially bought its own Michelin guide; four tourism agencies in the state banded together to pay Michelin a Miami Herald estimated at a staggering $1.5 million over three years.)
Left unasked was another question: should Texas they want a michelin guide?
I won’t answer it directly. There are obvious advantages: prestige, motivation for chefs and diners to become more adventurous, and the endless fun of debating which reviews are wrong and who got snubbed.
There are also two reasons for Texans to be cautious in our pursuit of Michelin stars. The state would probably get fewer Michelin stars than most people would like. The other side of the coin is that it’s not because Texas is a bad place to eat; Texas just has different culinary priorities than the guide. In fact, we would be asking another culture to judge us by their standards, not ours.
This does not mean who is right or wrong. You can make a good argument that many Texas chefs need the wake-up call of a stern reception from the Michelin Guide. However you feel about it, the Guide doesn’t judge restaurants the same way most Texas restaurants do.
Texas probably wouldn’t get many Michelin stars
Conversations with friends, colleagues and diners with extensive Michelin experience suggest that Texas, as a whole state, may or may not match the 23 starred restaurants in Chicago alone. If we were to create a betting market around Michelin stars, 23.5 would be an excellent over/under.
It is almost impossible to say which individual restaurants will be awarded because the Michelin Guide indulges in double standards. East Asia Guides award random noodle and dumpling shops with stars (like the $2 meal in Singapore, which was played for four years). But that’s not the case for American guides, who favor old-school luxury and bold culinary acts.
Racial inequality is also a concern. The current Michelin guide for California lists only two Mexican restaurants as worthy of a star, out of a total of 87 starred restaurants, even though California is more than 40 percent Hispanic or Latino. FloridaHis guide is similarly (four sushi spots, but only one for Mexican and South American cultures). This is troubling for Texas, as many of our best restaurants serve Latin American food.
Michelin’s star rating criteria are not easy to understand. They look transparent on paper (and I’m quoting):
- Quality of products
- Mastery of taste and cooking techniques
- The chef’s personality in his kitchen [yes, the guide says “his”]
- Value for money
- Consistency between visits
But it’s clear there’s more to it than that, especially when you look at the restaurants that get more than one star.
When you reach two or three stars, Michelin rewards restaurants of a specific type. Food should be very technical, not home style. Must be served in a flavor chosen by the chef. It should combine the chef’s personal heritage or favorite cuisine with the traditional hallmarks of a high-end European experience. There must be very good wine. The atmosphere should be formal and escapist, but not stuffy or musty. The bill should be $200 per person, not counting alcohol or service, an atypical definition of “value for money.” The meal should be a memorable occasion, not a casual Tuesday evening.
Looking around Texas, what do you see that fits these two-star criteria?
The only restaurant in Florida to receive two Michelin stars is a high-end chain location from the late chef Joël Robuchon. The three two-star restaurants in Washington, DC start at $295 per person (minibar by José Andrés) and go up from there. Chicago’s two-star venues all have tasting menus in the $250-$300 range. Few restaurants in Texas even attempt this format, let alone succeed at it.
After all, my guess is that Texas would be very lucky to get a single two-star restaurant. We would probably have about 20 one-star restaurants. That’s enough for foodies to travel the state completing their Michelin bucket list, but it’s also an overwhelming total for such a large market. We would face soul-searching if we really are “worse” than Florida.
Now here’s the good news.
The strengths of Texas are simply not interesting to Michelin
This is about more than our love of burgers, barbecue and tacos. The Michelin Guide has clear biases and Texas does not fit its preconceived notions.
The guide rewards technique, precision, creativity, luxury and formalized training. These are all good things, of course, but not all good foods fit all of those descriptions. It clearly favors European and Japanese foods, which are wonderful and require great skill, but it does so at the expense of other cultures.
Besides having a demographic mix that the Guide fails to understand, Texas simply prefers more relaxed fine dining experiences to Michelin. Even our best restaurants, like Xochi in Houston, favor a la carte menus over chef’s tastings. Wine is not our default drink. We love to eat delicious food in jeans and boots. We love the beer pairings and soft serve for dessert.
And many of our boldest and most innovative chefs prefer to cook in small, casual settings rather than serve avant-garde tasting menus for $300 each. Misti Norris’s rehearsals at Petra and the Beast are more memorable and creative than some Michelin-starred meals I’ve eaten, but they’re offered so casually—BYOB!—that the guide might turn his nose up.
Their loss.
like Morning news The writers suggest in their podcast, Texas chefs may be changing their attitudes and styles in response to Michelin. But at least initially, if the Michelin Guide comes to Texas, we may find ourselves holding fewer stars than we’d hoped. It simply means that our culture is not theirs.
The real moral will be that we, as Texas, must find our own ways to achieve and recognize greatness, rather than relying on validation from outsiders. We can save some time by learning that lesson now.
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Brian Reinhart
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Brian Reinhart became D Magazine’s dining critic in 2022 after six years of writing about restaurants for Dallas Observer AND Dallas Morning News.
