Misseline Stars

There is this curious thing called the Michelin Guide. You might have correctly guessed from the very recognizable picture above that this guide was started by the very same company that makes car tyres. I can't recall the first time I heard about Michelin stars, but it was some years back, probably on the tv, magazine, or newspapers. Anyway, I never really thought much about them until I started attending school at Columbia. Then it suddenly struck me that New York city was a food paradise by many's standards, and while surfing the net one day I stumbled upon the Michelin Guide for the Big Apple.

If you haven't heard yet, this little guide of French origin is big. Restaurants and chefs have risen to international fame because they were awarded the coveted star(s). Rumour has it that a chef committed suicide because he heard that Michelin had intended to remove one of his restaurant's three stars. As you can see, being awarded stars is a huge deal in the culinary scene.

Interior of The Greenhouse

Now, since these awards are so widely sought-after and so prestigious, how does the guide go about reviewing restaurants? According to the official website, the guide takes into account only what goes onto the plate - the food is the only thing that matters in a review. Food is rated by a team of trained professionals who have "culinary or hospitality industry background", and i quote the five measures they use: quality of product, mastery of flavour and cooking, personality of cuisine, value for money, and consistency between visits. Obviously, one's palate might differ from the other, and people can have different perceptions on abstract qualities like "mastery" and "personality", but such is the nature of taste and this method is really the best practically available one.

The next logical question is how many stars can a restaurant possibly get, and what does the star quantity mean? Again, i quote: one star (a very good restaurant in its category), two stars (excellent cooking and worth a detour), and a maximum of three stars (exceptional cuisine and worth the journey). This year there are only six restaurants in the US that can claim ownership to three stars, and four of them are in Manhattan. Because this guide had been European-centric until recent years, there are many great food nations out there that have not been reviewed, but I suspect things will change quite soon.

Now, would you not expect to be wowed when dining at a Michelin-starred establishment? I don't know about you but I sure do each and every time I visit one. Regrettably only one out of the four restaurants were up to standards, at least from what I tasted. To be clear, I am far from being a qualified candidate to be hired by Michelin, and I have my own prejudices when it comes to food (but so does everyone else), so what I say could be blasphemy to you but hey, the food went into my mouth and not anyone else's. And to be doubly clear, I visited each of the four restaurants only once and sampled only a couple of dishes each time, so that tells you how much statistical power my opinion bears.

I don't like going on and on about food that didn't impress me, but I think it's only fair to list the three restaurants in New York that I thought were overrated: Jean Georges (French, lunch), Oceana (seafood, restaurant week dinner), and Peter Luger (steak). Don't get me wrong, these are establishments that serve excellent cuisine, but I feel they're not at the level where Michelin claims they are. The only restaurant that I thought deserves its star is The Greenhouse in Mayfair, London. All pictures shown in this post (minus the Michelin man) were taken there.

Clockwise from top left: champagne, pumpkin bread, foie gras partridge terrine with chocolate sauce reduction, black olive madeleine with basil sorbet, petit fours, shellfish risotto with seaweed butter, amuse bouche.

Excellent presentation for every single dish and the flavors within each dish went very well together. Most interesting item was definitely the basil sorbet and the amuse bouche was most impressive. The terrine was rich but not overpowering and while the perfectly-cooked risotto was slightly salty, the shellfish's freshness really came through.