Thoughts on the Michelin rating system and other ones like the Zagat? Have you ever eaten at one before?

Can we stop being political about this? Why would the inspectors being "white" have anything to do with their critique? How do you even know they're all white?

Same for the "western" or "fine dining" description. Both are meaningless descriptions of what Michelin do. Musicologists don't qualify themselves as "classical musicologists" for the same reason, the European aristocratic traditions just happen to have been the apex of aesthetic achievement. If you know anything about music, you know classicism is the best, regardless of race or continent. Similarly, in food you know that food in the fine dining style is the best, regardless of race or continent.

>Thoughts on the Michelin rating system and other ones like the Zagat?
Zagat is dead. Guide Rouge rating is still important to some people, and its coverage is impressive. If I were to look for restaurants abroad I'd probably look through the Guide first.

The White guide (unrelated to Michelin) is a superior guide to the Scandinavian region, in my opinion.
>Have you ever eaten at one before?
Almost. I believe a local sushi place officially got their first star a few months after I went there. I've eaten at a few places with knife and fork rating, meaning the food is good but the service/locale isn't enough to award a star.
I've both eaten and worked in many highly WG-ranked restaurants. They know their shit. If they say it's good, it is.

>meme star
>Look at how many meme stars I have, some autistic shitlords like my food, that must mean I'm the best!
I bet I could make better food than any meme star restaurant.

That's a very noble sentiment, but maybe you should try eating at some non-western Michelin-starred restaurants and see for yourself. The standards are lower, this can be plainly seen by anyone. You don't have to be an expert in food to tell.

It would be best if people would actually not post in this thread unless they had direct experience with michelin starred dining.

>Can we stop being political about this? Why would the inspectors being "white" have anything to do with their critique? How do you even know they're all white?
I won't get into being white or not, but the classic criticism of Michelin rankings is that they're overtly francophile. This was almost the entire reason for the rapid rise of the alternative guides in general, and Zagat in particular.

They've tried to adress this more recently, but to plain dismiss the issue is lazy.

ironic shitposting is still shitposting, friend

>>look at all the meme schools I graduated from, some autistic shitlords and Julliard like my music, that must mean I'm the best
>I bet I could make better music than any meme school graduate

>mfw frogposter forgets his frog.svg

>actual autists
Keep living in your bubble, I'll stay in the real world, thanks.

>It would be best if people would actually not post in this thread unless they had direct experience with michelin starred dining.
That's a bit different from "my personal anecdote is that the criteria across continents is inconsistent"

The tradition and enthusiasm is greatest in France, using the nationalities as a problem is chauvinistic, stop being political about it.

At least musicologists don't stoop to considering it problematic that their discipline is "overtly germanophile". It's about the art, not countries. If one country is dominant, that's not inherently a problem.

>the European aristocratic traditions just happen to have been the apex of aesthetic achievement

That's an overly Eurocentric attitude and everyone agrees Classical is boring anyway, so much for achievement.

>The tradition and enthusiasm is greatest in France
No it's not.
>using the nationalities as a problem is chauvinistic
Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. Let's have a chat about these words you keep using.

>That's a bit different from "my personal anecdote is that the criteria across continents is inconsistent"
Just stop, it's clear you have no idea what you're talking about. Many people with an interest in food have noticed this problem, it strikes some people as vaguely racist. For instance there is no shortage of high-end Chinese dining in Hong Kong, with environment, food, and beverage aligned to provide a world-class dining experience, with Chinese-style cuisine. Yet the Michelin people just picked this informal spot because "we need more not-white-people stuff"

The same thing happened in my city, they added some random "not white people stuff", and it really does seem random. These places serve good food, but a michelin star should be more than good food. It's good *everything*.

Otherwise they should just start throwing stars at hamburger joints because this place serves a mean bacon cheeseburger. Why haven't they done that? Because they're still following their own standards for western dining, they just figure brown and yellow people are inherently unable to have their restaurants subjected to critical evaluation at a high level.

My sister won some raffle or whatever and got a free evening at a two star restaurant. She said the food was damn good but kinda weird and they kept pouring so much wine to the table that she was legitimately blasted at the end of the menu.

So many this. Also, the francophile tendensies mean other "white" but non-french cooking has been almost completely overlooked by the Michelin crew. It is only recently, after a world wide fancy and a long time successful guide of it's own that the scandinavian kitchen has gained any recognition with the Guide people. The same sentiment is echoed around the world, no matter the colour of the people there; the Guide Rouge is incapable of judging much outside classic french-with-a-slight-hint-of-italian cooking, and this is why the brand has weakened and the relevance of the ratings along with it.

It's not a matter of fairness as much as utility. The Guide got so blatantly biased it siezed to provide a usefull service to restaurant seekers.
It is only slowly and very hamfistedly trying to crawl back to relevance.

Mate, Michelin Man is white therefore it is only logical that Michelin stars are handed out by white westerners

But desu nordic cuisine has been pretty shit for long. New nordic is great but it has just started to emerge.

t.nordfag

I ate at a couple of Michelin starred restaurant(Alinea and WD~50) and also some of the restaurant at San Pellegrino's best 50 restaurant in the world (Iggy's, André)

I personally say that more stars doesn't mean that the food is better because they measure it based on the overall dining experience (Food, Ambience, Service,etc)

Fun fact: A lot of Japanese Chef refuse to accept Michelin Star because they don't want to be rated by gaijin's standard.

>the Tim Ho Wan fiasco

Story?

travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/none/holy-dim-sum-michelin-guide-2010-goes-cheap-and-cheerful-689999/

Fucking Tim Ho Wan, now all those underpaid labor can say that they've worked in a michelin starred restaurant.

>Fun fact: A lot of Japanese Chef refuse to accept Michelin Star because they don't want to be rated by gaijin's standard.
Fun fact: they are only offered a star as a token gesture, to allay the criticisms of the Michelin Guide being racist.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Michelin stars are biased towards Western European cuisine. That's why they were established.

Giving Stars to non-Western European establishments is sometimes deserved but very often it's as a result of 'Equality' in trying to seem balanced.

>New nordic
Is just a buzzword ment to make the evolution of the same old shit sound more interesting and fresh than it realy is. We smörrebröd and gravlax people have been running circles around a french school of cooking that peaked around the start of the 20'th century for ages now. So have the mediterraneans, the nippi-nippons, the Koreans and the four Chinese kitchen are coming strong too. Even in the west.
Not recognizing this in time was the fall of the Guide Rouge.
>go be a norwegian lutefisk somewhere else

Yes, there have been great classics here but rest of it pretty shit. Good gravlax is the greatest thing you can eat.

Define 'rest of it'. Traditional goose feasts? Smörgåsbord? World renown cheeses like Västerbotten, Präst, Svecia. Reindeer jerky, smoked, cured, filet or stewed. Sausage and charcuterie rivaling the Italian and Spanish. Chantarelles, lingonberries, juniper and world class beer. Porcini and bacalao being as Norse as they are Italian/Portugese. Palt and blood pudding five steps ahead of Morcilla anything the 'bongs can muster.

Are you making the age old blunder of comparing one food cultures feasts to anothers home cooking and streetfood?

>Palt and blood pudding five steps ahead of Morcilla anything the 'bongs can muster.
> anything the 'bongs can muster.
Fight me!

As a Bong, I have tried hard to embrace Scandi cuisine, there is nothing wrong with it but it does seem lacking and is more suited to a light lunch on a sunny day; Which is surprising as your countries are colder mine. I just can't see a 3 course meal anywhere?

Michelin is very selective of what restaurants they rate, so getting a star means your restaurant is very good. Depending on your definition of elite, it could mean so.

I like the original Michelin meaning:
1 star meant the restaurant was worth a stop if you were traveling nearby..
2 stars meant that the restaurant was worth a side trip.
3 stars meant that the restaurant was worth making a trip in and of itself.

under that premise, it doesn't need to be 'fine' dining.

Stop putting dots and circles over normal letters.

High calorie Scandinavian stuff requested:
Try some Janssons frestelse. It's a full cream potato gratain flavoured with liberal amounts of sauteed onion and spicy anchovies or sprat.
Kallops is a meat stew with oldspice and sometimes juniper similar to bourguignon in style but without wine. Served with carrots and potatoes.
Any steamed/poached white fish with chopped eggs, shrimp, horseradish and drenched in browned butter.
Split pea soup with lots of majoram, pork, mustard and traditionally served with a "dessert" composed of a stack of flat pancakes with wipped cream and blackberry+raspberry jam.
The aforementioned black pudding. Unlike the flavourless bong version made very sweet and spicy. With majoram, lots of ginger, chunks of apple and roasted tallow. Served with fried bacon or crispy salted porkbelly, lingonberries, seared apples and browned butter.
Meatballs in a reduced double cream/veal stock sauce with buttered potato puré, dill-pickled cucumber and lingonberries. Easily 2000+kcal per helpin if you're not careful.
Crispy salted pork with an onion sauce that is caramelised onion with reduced double cream. A salt/fat/umami bomb.
Non-blood palt is a tennisball sized dumpling of potato dough filled with spicy pork in a sea of butter. Obligatory sweetened lingonberries.
A goose feast is an ungodly orgy that will put bong cristmas dinners and burger thanksgivings to shame.

I could go on.
The international resurgence of Scandinavian flavours and food has been a fine dining one. The impression that things are petite and finessed is an illusion. It's as rustic and filling as anything the frog classics have to offer.
fock off borger

I've eaten at 1, 2 and 3 star restaurants. I generally find the star rating to be somewhat representative of the experience, but not always.

Of the michelin starred restaurants Ive eaten at outside of London, they have all held 1 star. And in my opinion, they didn't deserve to. They were nice restaurants, but not up to the standard of those in London. I got the impression that where there was less competition, it was easier to get a star. Also it might have something to do with Michelin wanting to prove they travel all over the country. Like someones thought "how can we sell our guide and generate interest for Michelin in region X? I know, lets ensure theres a starred restaurant in region X".

You sound like an insufferable faggot.

>blasted

She was high on meth?

Don't be a fucking idiot, we all know that Michelin began rating restaurants for its travel guides. That doesn't mean that their insights on food are wrong.

0/10

Duchemin>Michelin

Over in Singapore, their staff wear uniforms proclaiming them to be the world's cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant, even though the Singapore branches aren't starred, and I think they're quite a bit more expensive than the HK branches

I'm considering going to one of my cities two 3 star locations. Then I see the bill is about 480 a person (with wine pairing), I can put extra money aside and afford it without sacrificing or struggling, but I think my expectation would be so high it would never be met.

The opposite is typically true of Burgerstan, unless you are talking about BBQ spots in the South - then you need to find the shittiest looking, most backwoods places.