Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
Speaker 1: and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Guess what Mango was that?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: All right, well, I know you're a huge Katy Perry fan, right,
Speaker 2: Well not really. Well, you're at least familiar with the
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen songs she did with Migos called Bone Appetite,
Speaker 2: right like big One?
Speaker 1: No, real, this is it.
Speaker 2: We may need to do a different episode. That's fine.
Speaker 2: I know it's no firework. But the whole song is
Speaker 2: basically this extended metaphor. You didn't know she was into this, right,
Speaker 2: extended metaphors where Katy Perry is describing herself as a
Speaker 2: delicious meal in lots of creative ways, and at one
Speaker 2: point in the song, she says, I'm a five star Michelin.
Speaker 2: A five star Michelin.
Speaker 1: Mango five stars is really confident.
Speaker 2: No, it's not confident. It's ridiculous because the Micheline star
Speaker 2: rating only goes up to three stars. And poor Katy
Speaker 2: Perry actually didn't realize that sousicians don't fact check their songs.
Speaker 2: I know, it's very, very disappointing.
Speaker 1: So wait, well, why does Michelin only use three stars
Speaker 1: and not like five or ten.
Speaker 2: Well, the Michelin Star system is full of all kinds
Speaker 2: of arbitrary, opaque, and frankly mystifying rules, and it's kind
Speaker 2: of its whole thing. That's why they do this, and
Speaker 2: that's what we're getting into in this episode.
Speaker 1: Or in the words of Katy Perry Bonepetite.
Speaker 2: I knew you were a big fan. Welcome back to
Speaker 2: Part Time Genius. I'm will and as always, I'm here
Speaker 2: with my good friend Mango, and somewhere behind that big
Speaker 2: booth is our pal Dylan, who I think is trolling
Speaker 2: us because he's decorated that booth with all these posters
Speaker 2: of the I see. I think I see the Pillsbury
Speaker 2: dough Boy, the Staypuff marshmallow Man, even that character from
Speaker 2: what was it, Big Hero six, Big Hero six?
Speaker 1: Pretty It is definitely trolling us because he's got every
Speaker 1: other white puffy character from pop culture except the Michelin Man. Also,
Speaker 1: where did he get so many Pillsburgh doble.
Speaker 2: He's impressive. He's very into like the you know, finding
Speaker 2: the sales.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably where he really goes all out.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm really excited to be doing this show together,
Speaker 2: but I'm curious what made you think to do this
Speaker 2: episode on Michelin Stars.
Speaker 1: So I watched this Bradley Cooper movie on a flight.
Speaker 1: It's called Burnt, and you've seen it, and there's this
Speaker 1: whole thing where they're talking about how to spot these
Speaker 1: like elite reviewers from Michelin whatever, and they come in
Speaker 1: in pairs and order in specific ways, and I kind
Speaker 1: of want to see how much of that was true.
Speaker 1: So that was part of it. Plus, I know your
Speaker 1: parents are foodies and they used to have all those
Speaker 1: menus on their porch from restaurants.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I just thought it'd be a fun topic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm excited to dive in. So why don't we
Speaker 2: go back to the beginning just to think about where
Speaker 2: the name comes from. So basically, we're going way back
Speaker 2: to eighteen eighty nine and Michelin started out as a
Speaker 2: tire manufacturing company, which I think a lot of people know,
Speaker 2: but it was the brothers Andre and Eduard Michelin, and
Speaker 2: they took over their grandfather's struggling manufacturing business and they
Speaker 2: started producing tires and they were really clever, so they
Speaker 2: pat into this removable pneumatic bike tire. They invented the
Speaker 2: first automobile tire, and they even made rubber train.
Speaker 1: Tires, tires for trains.
Speaker 2: That's supposedly why the Paris Metro used to be so quiet.
Speaker 2: I'd never heard of this before, but just then, looking
Speaker 2: to this, it's pretty neat and it doesn't screech like
Speaker 2: New York's. But anyway, in eighteen eighty nine, Michelin debuts
Speaker 2: their puffy mascot, the Michelin Man. Way back in eighteen
Speaker 2: eighty nine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, as Dylan pointed out, looks a whole lot like
Speaker 1: the stay puffed guy from Ghostbusters.
Speaker 2: Yep, except he's not made of marshmallows. He's actually made
Speaker 2: of tires. And apparently Michelin tires used to be white.
Speaker 2: And one day Eduard looked at this pile of tires
Speaker 2: and he was like, hey, Andre, if that pile of
Speaker 2: tires had arms, it would look like a man. So
Speaker 2: that's that's how this stuff comes to life.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I guess anything's a mascot if you
Speaker 1: put arms on it.
Speaker 2: And they had this kind of funny concept for it.
Speaker 2: They named their tire man Bibindam because that comes from
Speaker 2: the Latin phrase nunc s bibindum, which means now is
Speaker 2: the time to drink. Because then these earliest ads, if
Speaker 2: you look at them, he's actually holding up this goblet
Speaker 2: of nails and broken glass, because the whole concept was
Speaker 2: they wanted to show that michelin tires were unfazed by
Speaker 2: obstacles on the road.
Speaker 1: So in this super weird scenario, he's drinking nails and
Speaker 1: broken glass.
Speaker 2: Yes, the tire man, that's what it does.
Speaker 1: Is okay, So Michelin man is like this well fed,
Speaker 1: indestructible bon Vivonne, the kind of guy who can eatn
Speaker 1: drink all day and night and just keep going.
Speaker 2: It's such as impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a.
Speaker 2: Very French illustration of longevity. So anyway, in nineteen hundred,
Speaker 2: Michelin begins publishing these free travel guides to France and
Speaker 2: eventually they make guides for other parts of Europe. And
Speaker 2: it's a pretty smart play because Michelin's basically acting like
Speaker 2: tourism pioneers, so they're encouraging ordinary people to take longer
Speaker 2: and longer road trips. As you know, of course, helps
Speaker 2: boost hire sales, and from the beginning of these tourism
Speaker 2: road trip guys included restaurant recommendations so.
Speaker 1: I guess these early French travelers weren't like eating handfuls
Speaker 1: of Twizzlers or beef jerky on they.
Speaker 2: Really missing out, really really missing out. And Michelin was
Speaker 2: smart about their review system too. The reviews were always
Speaker 2: conducted anonymously, and so this gave Micheline this extra layer
Speaker 2: of credibility with customers. They weren't just handing out good
Speaker 2: reviews to friends. Then you fast forward to nineteen twenty
Speaker 2: six when the stars first began appearing. So this is
Speaker 2: a quarter of a century later, but at that time
Speaker 2: they're all awarded to restaurants in France, and so initially
Speaker 2: they were just starred and non starred restaurants. But then
Speaker 2: in the nineteen thirties, Michelin created the three star system
Speaker 2: that remains in place today.
Speaker 1: So there's no real reason that it's three stars.
Speaker 2: They just kind of decided that. I mean, they're French,
Speaker 2: so they have to do something. It's a little different.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever been to a Michelin
Speaker 2: star restaurant, Mango a one or two or I got
Speaker 2: a three Mango.
Speaker 1: Listen, Milo's a three star restaurant.
Speaker 2: The fast food burger joint, I think it was two stars,
Speaker 2: and still they started putting that extra nub of meat
Speaker 2: on the paddy. It's a little bonus nub, and then
Speaker 2: that got them to three. No, actually I don't think
Speaker 2: they have any stars mego.
Speaker 1: So I think what's funny about the whole Michelin Star
Speaker 1: thing is how vague the distinctions are between sort of
Speaker 1: the one, two and three star establishments.
Speaker 2: What do you mean by that?
Speaker 1: So apparently one Michelin Star is award to restaurants using
Speaker 1: top quality ingredients, where dishes with these distinct flavors are
Speaker 1: prepared to a consistently high standard.
Speaker 2: Yeah that sounds good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it totally sounds good. And then two Michelin Stars
Speaker 1: are awarded when the personality and talent of the chef
Speaker 1: are evident in these expertly crafted dishes and their food
Speaker 1: is refined and inspired.
Speaker 2: M hm also sounds good, m H.
Speaker 1: And three Michelin Stars, the highest award, is given for
Speaker 1: the superlative cooking of chefs at the peak of their profession.
Speaker 1: The cooking is to an art form, and some of
Speaker 1: their dishes are destined to become classics.
Speaker 2: That also sounds good.
Speaker 1: Mengo system, that's the things they all sound good, I mean,
Speaker 1: and they also kind of sound the same, right, like
Speaker 1: like one star is good, two stars is more good,
Speaker 1: and three stars is just like more and more good.
Speaker 2: Seriously, it's good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So how do you eat a meal and decide
Speaker 1: that the food is refined and inspired versus you know,
Speaker 1: a meal that's an art form? Right? How do they
Speaker 1: even make these judgments?
Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad you asked that, mango.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like I set you off.
Speaker 2: So the judging is done by anonymous Michelin inspectors, all
Speaker 2: of whom work full time and have prior restaurant and
Speaker 2: hospitality experience. Multiple inspectors dine at a restaurant under consideration,
Speaker 2: and then they talk about these ratings together, so it's
Speaker 2: not just one person that's passing judgment on a place
Speaker 2: after a single meal. Inspectors visit multiple times for different
Speaker 2: meals with the goal of experiencing the full range of
Speaker 2: the menu. So it's a really thorough process. And Michigan
Speaker 2: claims there is quote no sek mathematical formula and that
Speaker 2: decor degree of formality, type of cuisine, like all of
Speaker 2: that that they really don't matter. Of course, there are
Speaker 2: five specific criteria the judges used to award stars. So
Speaker 2: here they are. The first is quality the ingredients, the
Speaker 2: second is the harmony of flavors. Then you have the
Speaker 2: mastery of culinary techniques. Fourth is the personality of the
Speaker 2: chef is expressed through their cuisine. And then the fifth
Speaker 2: is consistency of the above but across the entire menu
Speaker 2: and over time. And it's worth mentioning. There's also this
Speaker 2: thing called the bib Gourmand designation and it's given to
Speaker 2: the most affordable restaurants that offer high value for the money.
Speaker 2: And I have wondered this before because you'll notice this
Speaker 2: in cities. Sometimes it'll be like a diner or something
Speaker 2: like that that'll end up with a Michelin Star. I
Speaker 2: do think that's pretty cool that thinks they think about
Speaker 2: it this way. But all of this judging has done
Speaker 2: completely anonymously, and that just actually seems crazy to me, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't understand how these inspectors could keep their identity
Speaker 2: a secret if they're hopping around to all the world's
Speaker 2: best restaurants multiple times a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's exactly the part I wanted to dig into.
Speaker 1: So why don't we tackle that after.
Speaker 2: A break sounds good. Welcome back to part time Genius,
Speaker 2: where we're talking about Michelin stars and why chefs are
Speaker 2: so darn thirsty for them. So Megel, I think you
Speaker 2: were just about to tell us how the food criticism
Speaker 2: at Michelin works.
Speaker 1: That's right. So in two thousand and nine, The New
Speaker 1: Yorker published this profile of a New York inspector and
Speaker 1: it's super fun and cloak and dagger. The inspector's pseudonym
Speaker 1: was Maxine, and the first really interesting thing is that
Speaker 1: she said most Michelin executives don't even know who the
Speaker 1: inspectors are.
Speaker 2: Oh wow.
Speaker 1: In fact, inspectors are told to keep their work secret
Speaker 1: from their friends and even from their parents.
Speaker 2: I have to be honest, I don't think I could
Speaker 2: keep that secret from my parents.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know. I feel like Bill and Paulett would
Speaker 1: definitely be dining with you and bringing everyone boxes of
Speaker 1: fancy leftovers. But Maxine revealed that she ate restaurant meals
Speaker 1: about two hundred days per year, dinner and lunch, and
Speaker 1: almost always alone, because inspectors really can't risk being identified
Speaker 1: through conversations at the table.
Speaker 2: I love eating out, and I love eating out at
Speaker 2: good restaurants, but two hundred days a year I have
Speaker 2: to and especially like by yourself most of the time.
Speaker 2: That kind of seems like torture.
Speaker 1: I know. It's almost like work travel, Like as a kid,
Speaker 1: you think it's going to be so exciting, like on
Speaker 1: the road in hotels and stuff, and then you do
Speaker 1: it for a few months and it kind of loses
Speaker 1: the charm. But at Michelin, the system is almost set
Speaker 1: up like this secret service. So Maxine said when she
Speaker 1: was being considered for the job, she had to eat
Speaker 1: several meals under supervision of inspectors who operated like spies.
Speaker 1: And this is her quote. You never know the name
Speaker 1: of the person you're meeting. You never know where their
Speaker 1: meeting until right before, so they call you up and
Speaker 1: say meet me at the corner of XYZ and.
Speaker 2: Xyz, so dramatic, like you kind of forget for a second,
Speaker 2: we're talking about food, Like it seems like a national
Speaker 2: security thing, but it's really like who has the best
Speaker 2: pork belly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And aspiring inspectors also have to attend a secret
Speaker 1: Michelin training course in France, and then they have to
Speaker 1: complete all this additional still anonymous training in another country,
Speaker 1: and then they do a three to six month still
Speaker 1: very anonymous apprenticeship with a more senior inspector. So another
Speaker 1: anonymous inspector from a twenty seventeen Food and Wine article
Speaker 1: did shed a little bit of light on what happens here.
Speaker 1: He said, we always order three courses, an appetizer and
Speaker 1: entree and dessert, and we try to pick items that
Speaker 1: are the best representation of the menu concept or chef's talents.
Speaker 1: But of course, despite Michelin's best efforts, in December two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, there was this big tell all.
Speaker 2: I was hoping you would get to a tell all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you kind of have to hope for it. So
Speaker 1: this book comes out from this inspector in Pascal Remy,
Speaker 1: who was fired after revealing that he'd kept a diary
Speaker 1: of his career, and he planned to publish this book.
Speaker 1: And so the book is called The Inspector Sits Down
Speaker 1: at the Table, and it was published in France in
Speaker 1: April two thousand and four, and it caused a huge stir.
Speaker 1: One journalist from France called it a storm and a
Speaker 1: saucepan A storm.
Speaker 2: I kind of love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great, right, It's also a good description of Ruby,
Speaker 1: but Remy alleged some pretty wild stuff in this book,
Speaker 1: all of which Michelin disputes. He said that despite publishing
Speaker 1: new guides with updated ratings every year, Michelin didn't actually
Speaker 1: visit or revisit every restaurant annually, which is a huge
Speaker 1: scandal right in part because there aren't enough inspectors. Remy
Speaker 1: wrote that there were only five inspectors in all of
Speaker 1: France as of two thousand and three when he was writing,
Speaker 1: which is not nearly enough to cover the country's ten
Speaker 1: thousand restaurants. He also said there's some three star restaurants
Speaker 1: which were secretly deemed untouchable, so like, under no circumstance
Speaker 1: could they lose their talk rating, even though Remi claimed
Speaker 1: more than a third of the guide's three star rated
Speaker 1: establishments didn't actually meet the three star criteria.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's a really bad look for a
Speaker 2: rating system that's supposed to be, you know, super objective
Speaker 2: and impartial for this whole history of its existence. But
Speaker 2: when you have something like a Michelin star that sought
Speaker 2: after and means so much to these restaurants, there's definitely
Speaker 2: going to be some fallout from this.
Speaker 1: So what are you thinking about right now.
Speaker 2: Well, for example, obviously, getting a Michelin star can catapult
Speaker 2: a restaurant into fame in many cases bring these huge profits.
Speaker 2: But losing a star, and I'd not really thought about
Speaker 2: this before, but it can bring just the opposite of
Speaker 2: that effect. So Thornton's at the Fitzwilliam Hotel, a high
Speaker 2: end Dublin restaurant, lost its Michelin star back in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: and it maintained this star for two decades, and when
Speaker 2: it did, profits dropped by seventy six percent by the
Speaker 2: end of twenty sixteen. Yeah, and actually the place ended
Speaker 2: up having to close after that. And as the chef,
Speaker 2: Kevin Thornton told The Irish Independent, losing the star felt
Speaker 2: like quote getting stabbed in the heart. I mean, it
Speaker 2: means so much to these people. In fact, one chef,
Speaker 2: Bernard Laisseau, was so terrified of losing his three Micheline
Speaker 2: stars that it may have actually contributed to his two
Speaker 2: thousand and three suicide.
Speaker 1: That's really terrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. I mean he'd been running this
Speaker 2: Burgundy restaurant called Le Couteur, where he had actually gotten
Speaker 2: a third Michelin star in nineteen ninety one. But in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, this French newspaper Le Figaro published
Speaker 2: this rumor and claimed that he was slated to lose
Speaker 2: his third star, and his widow told The Observer that
Speaker 2: the rumor had a real impact on her husband because
Speaker 2: he feared that losing a star would have these devastating
Speaker 2: financial consequences. But one of the saddest parts of the
Speaker 2: story is after his death, the two thousand and three
Speaker 2: Michelin Guide gave the restaurant its usual three stars. That
Speaker 2: is so sad, it really is. But it's not just
Speaker 2: losing a star that can have negative consequences for a restaurant.
Speaker 2: Even getting a star can throw a place into turmoil.
Speaker 2: So it's an example of that. After being listed in
Speaker 2: the twenty sixteen Hong Kong Guide, there was this dessert
Speaker 2: shop called Kai Kai Dessert that was forced to move
Speaker 2: because its landlord got greedy and thinking that it would
Speaker 2: bring this new spike in business, he raised the rent
Speaker 2: by one hundred and twenty percent, which is awful. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the owners did get lucky though. There was this loyal
Speaker 2: customer that offered them rent in a nearby space at
Speaker 2: a rent that he could afford, but the Michelin Star
Speaker 2: branding can be especially tough on small establishments that don't
Speaker 2: have the capital or the capacity to meet this sudden
Speaker 2: demand that comes with a rating. Like seventy two year
Speaker 2: old Jafi, who earned a Michelin Star in twenty seventeen
Speaker 2: for her cooking at an open air street food restaurant
Speaker 2: in Bangkok. So the award made her this overnight celebrity,
Speaker 2: which is great, but she was one of only seventeen
Speaker 2: chefs in Thailand with a star, and a few months
Speaker 2: later she actually told a reporter she wanted who give
Speaker 2: the star back?
Speaker 1: Can you actually give a starback?
Speaker 2: Not really? But if I explain that her restaurant's vibes
Speaker 2: had been super relaxed before and the star had basically
Speaker 2: turned it into chaos, I actually feel like I've experienced
Speaker 2: this before at restaurants when they seem so good and
Speaker 2: suddenly they gained this notoriety and that experience has just
Speaker 2: changed totally. So the award made her this overnight celebrity.
Speaker 2: She was the only person cooking, so suddenly there was
Speaker 2: this increase in traffic, and it meant she no longer
Speaker 2: had time to take breaks or chat with their diners
Speaker 2: that were there, and her servers were overwhelmed from the
Speaker 2: stress and just worry that neighbors on their street were
Speaker 2: going to get angry because of the crowds and the noise.
Speaker 2: But the worst part was that Jay Fi had all
Speaker 2: these tax inspectors that started showing up seemingly because they
Speaker 2: thought she must be making more money than she had reported,
Speaker 2: and they kept trying to look through her books.
Speaker 1: So is jay the only chef who's tried to give
Speaker 1: these stars back? Have you heard more?
Speaker 2: Not even close? So there's this South Korean chef oh
Speaker 2: Ya Kwan got an Italian eatery called Restaurante O, and
Speaker 2: it received a Michelin star in twenty seventeen. It was
Speaker 2: a guide to soul dining there and O claims that
Speaker 2: as soon as he learned this, he contacted Michelin and
Speaker 2: asked to be removed, but it unfortunately didn't work for him,
Speaker 2: and his restaurant appeared again in twenty eighteen with a star.
Speaker 1: So, I mean, I guess there's another way, right, he
Speaker 1: could just try to lower the quality of the food
Speaker 1: theirs out, But I mean, I guess that's not anything
Speaker 1: any self respecting chef wants to do well.
Speaker 2: In the twenty nineteen edition, oh actually did lose the star,
Speaker 2: but he still appeared in the guide, at which point
Speaker 2: he actually sued Michelin, not for the demotion, but for
Speaker 2: including his restaurant at all. There was this CNN interview
Speaker 2: that he did and he explained that the guide's methodology
Speaker 2: was part of the problem. It's the cruelest test in
Speaker 2: the world, he says. It forces the chefs to work
Speaker 2: around a year waiting for a test, and they don't
Speaker 2: know when and it's coming.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do love that there's this rating system
Speaker 1: to help guide me as this outsider, especially in cities
Speaker 1: that I don't know. But you can see how it's
Speaker 1: hard on chefs. And also there have been strange stories
Speaker 1: that make you question the objectivity and fairness of the organization,
Speaker 1: like apparently Michelin inspectors are supposed to visit a restaurant
Speaker 1: several times before they raid it, but in two thousand
Speaker 1: and five, for the first time in history, Michelin was
Speaker 1: actually forced to recall one of its guides. The two
Speaker 1: thousand and five guide covering Belgium, the Netherlands in Luxembourg
Speaker 1: was pulled after fifty thousand copies had already been published,
Speaker 1: and the reason was that this Belgian restaurant, the Austin Queen,
Speaker 1: had been given that bib Gorman designation, you know, the
Speaker 1: one for like great cheap food, but the restaurant hadn't
Speaker 1: actually opened yet loops. So you know, there's also this
Speaker 1: issue of investors in the Michelin Guide. The whole thing
Speaker 1: is a really expensive enterprise, and so like you're talking
Speaker 1: about these big tabs from fine dining restaurants plus printing
Speaker 1: up the actual guide. So some Michelin guides are the
Speaker 1: result of investments from the countries themselves. Michelin guides to
Speaker 1: Thailand and Singapore and Hong Kong are actually backed in
Speaker 1: part by payments from the local tourism boards, which totally
Speaker 1: makes sense, but the sums are pretty impressive. Like Thailand
Speaker 1: paid supposedly four point four million dollars to be paid
Speaker 1: out over the course of five years to fund like
Speaker 1: multiple editions of the Michelin Thailand Guide.
Speaker 2: That is a lot of money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and corporate sponsors can get involved too, Like to
Speaker 1: launch the Hong Kong Guide in two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: Michelin got funding from several brands including Evian Espresso, Robert
Speaker 1: Parker Wine Advocate, which Michelin owns a stake in, And
Speaker 1: while the details are kind of scarce, it kind of
Speaker 1: makes it hard to verify if government or corporate money
Speaker 1: is influencing Michelin Stars, and if they are, what extent
Speaker 1: are they actually having their influence? Met?
Speaker 2: I mean, I have to guess this is not zero.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the website Eater connected some of the
Speaker 1: dots for Michelin Singapore g and so there's this Resorts
Speaker 1: World Sentosa and they acted as a title sponsor the
Speaker 1: guide and hosted this invitation only gala for the launch
Speaker 1: of the twenty sixteen Singapore Stars Guide and after that
Speaker 1: for the resort's restaurants also happened to snag seven of
Speaker 1: those coveted Stars, So, I.
Speaker 2: Mean it could be a coincidence. Probably not.
Speaker 1: There's also been an issue with Michelin and greenwashing. So
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, Michelin added a new designation to the
Speaker 1: Stars and the bib Gourmond and they call it the
Speaker 1: Green Star. Supposedly it honors quote restaurants that are role
Speaker 1: models when it comes to sustainable astronomy.
Speaker 2: So what exactly does that mean?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it sounds great, but it's pretty unclear
Speaker 1: what it actually indicates. So there's this chef Chris Polisi
Speaker 1: who wrote in this deleted blog now that the Green
Speaker 1: Star review process consisted of one brief call to his restaurant.
Speaker 1: There wasn't an in person audit or a detailed questionnaire,
Speaker 1: and as he put it, there wasn't even quote a
Speaker 1: critical question of any type. And then there's this other chef,
Speaker 1: Matt Orlando, who agreed, and he told Wired there was
Speaker 1: absolutely no fact checking during his Green Star review. I
Speaker 1: could have said anything and it would have qualified.
Speaker 2: Me for their ward. I'm just shocked by this.
Speaker 1: So Michelin says, our teams rely both on their field work,
Speaker 1: i e. On the experience of eating in that restaurant,
Speaker 1: as well as in depth research and conversations with restaurant
Speaker 1: tours regarding their eco responsible practices. So that's their defense.
Speaker 2: I actually didn't think we could get more vague than
Speaker 2: refined and inspired versus elevated to an art form, But
Speaker 2: here we are. Mago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a pattern. But the near total secrecy around
Speaker 1: this review process, especially the process by which stars are
Speaker 1: given and taken away, means it's kind of impossible to
Speaker 1: know if Michelin is being fair or what other factors,
Speaker 1: whether that's money or connections or sponsorship, is actually playing
Speaker 1: a role. And for diners and chefs, you really don't
Speaker 1: know if the reviews are done by people familiar with
Speaker 1: local cuisines.
Speaker 2: Right right, actually on that local cuisine tip. It's worth
Speaker 2: noting that even though in recent years Michelin has expanded
Speaker 2: coverage beyond Europe and European cooking, some have definitely criticized
Speaker 2: it for retaining an overly European lens that South Korea
Speaker 2: and chef oh Ya Kwan, the guy who wanted to
Speaker 2: give his starback you remember him, said that the entire
Speaker 2: Soul Guide was suspect and quote a sad joke since
Speaker 2: it only included one hundred and seventy of the city's restaurants. So,
Speaker 2: writing in Vogue Korea, one food writer explained, the only
Speaker 2: people who really care about having the Michelin Guide in
Speaker 2: Seoul are those who are obsessed with Soul's international status,
Speaker 2: like they're obsessed with impressing Western elites. They aren't confident
Speaker 2: that Soul can stand on its own as a restaurant capital.
Speaker 1: So is there Michelin on other continents well.
Speaker 2: So far, Michelin's presence in South and Latin America is
Speaker 2: pretty new and rather limited, and it doesn't seem aware
Speaker 2: that Africa exists just yet. Somebody should tell them about Africa.
Speaker 1: I also noticed that you didn't mention Antarctica.
Speaker 2: It's a real snub, to be honest with you. But
Speaker 2: the research station near this one ice dome supposedly has
Speaker 2: just the most amazing papoosas.
Speaker 1: So they're missing out. Well before we sign off, maybe
Speaker 1: we do a quick backup. Absolutely, how would we start
Speaker 1: with the world's most remote Michelin star restaurant? This two
Speaker 1: star restaurant called Cox in Elimanok, a tiny settlement on
Speaker 1: Disco Bay in Greenland. The town has a population of
Speaker 1: fifty six, but the restaurant's staff has brought that up
Speaker 1: to eighty eight now and today. It's accessible by boat
Speaker 1: in the fall and summer, but in the winter and spring,
Speaker 1: when icebergs clogged the bay, you can only get there
Speaker 1: by helicopter.
Speaker 2: Wow, And so what can you get there?
Speaker 1: There's a tasting menu that includes more than twenty courses
Speaker 1: and it costs about four hundred and seventy dollars or
Speaker 1: thirty two hundred Danish kroner, which.
Speaker 2: I know you didn't have to do that conversion. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I knew.
Speaker 1: The food is all locally sourced, and you get dishes
Speaker 1: like raw whale skin marinated in currant leaf oil, musk
Speaker 1: ox broth, reindeer tartar with moss and fermented mushroom comfort food,
Speaker 1: and ptarmigan with black currant salsa.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, well, speaking of one of Michelin's cheapest restaurants.
Speaker 2: Back in two thousand and nine, the dim sum restaurant
Speaker 2: Tim Howan opened in Hong Kong and set the world
Speaker 2: on fire, and within just a year it received a
Speaker 2: Michelin Star, becoming the world's most inexpensive Michelin starred restaurant.
Speaker 2: But almost as quickly it expanded beyond its humble roots,
Speaker 2: and today Tim Howan is a multi national chain with
Speaker 2: locations in twelve countries, including two where you live in
Speaker 2: New York City, which is maybe the best way of
Speaker 2: dealing with the headache of getting a star anyway. Tim
Speaker 2: Howan Hong Kong no longer has a Michelin Star, but
Speaker 2: it does have the bib gourmand as a nation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was actually reading about another one of these
Speaker 1: cheap eats. The Michelin twenty sixteen Guide for Singapore, which
Speaker 1: was their inaugural guide there, gave this star to a
Speaker 1: street food hawker for the first time. The person's name
Speaker 1: was Leo Fan and the restaurant is Hong Kong Seya
Speaker 1: Sauce Chicken, rice and Noodle, and it also claimed to
Speaker 1: be the most inexpensive Michelin Star restaurant for a while.
Speaker 1: It's famous sey sauce chicken dish cost about two dollars.
Speaker 1: But just like your chef, Tim Howan quickly used that
Speaker 1: star to open.
Speaker 2: Up a slew of franchises. Yeah, not surprising. So I
Speaker 2: know we talked about all these chefs trying to give
Speaker 2: back their stars, but there are plenty who lose stars
Speaker 2: and desperately want them back, including the French chef Mark Verrat.
Speaker 2: So in twenty nineteen, Verat lost this lawsuit he brought
Speaker 2: against Michelin after the guide demoted his restaurant from three
Speaker 2: stars down to two. And the thing is he wasn't
Speaker 2: actually asking for the star to be reinstated, but he
Speaker 2: was trying to get Michelin to provide the names and
Speaker 2: resumes of the inspectors who graded him, as well as
Speaker 2: proof that they had in fact eaten at his restaurant.
Speaker 2: And for their part, Michelin refused, saying they had to
Speaker 2: protect their inspector's and anonemity, but that the demotion was
Speaker 2: based on one detail. Verat used English Cheddar in his
Speaker 2: soioux flet I means just a big mistake, choose mistake.
Speaker 2: So for his part, Verrot insisted that he had never
Speaker 2: done any such thing, and in fact, he showed the
Speaker 2: court a video of the soufflet's preparation. It used two
Speaker 2: French cheeses, Beaufort and Roblachan, and Verat told CNN, I'm
Speaker 2: ready to accept losing a star, but they have to
Speaker 2: tell me why. In my opinion, they are incompetent. Do
Speaker 2: you realize they mixed up Roeblachan and Cheddar. I mean,
Speaker 2: my god, can you imagine this? So the court ruled
Speaker 2: against Verat, saying there was no proof that he and
Speaker 2: his business had suffered any damage from the demotion, and
Speaker 2: to be fair, it does feel like if you've got
Speaker 2: the sophisticated palette of a Michelin chef, it is hard
Speaker 2: to mix up cheddar and roblesh On, which is this soft,
Speaker 2: squishy cheese that kind of looks like Brie or Beaufort,
Speaker 2: which is basically a type of griere. And I feel
Speaker 2: like this is probably a conspiracy that we can investigate
Speaker 2: in a different episode cheese controversies.
Speaker 1: Well, I really like that last fact, and I think
Speaker 1: I'm going to give you today's trophy.
Speaker 2: Oh that's so kind of you. All Right, I'm going
Speaker 2: to place this on Dylan's desk for all of those
Speaker 2: Pillsbury dough boys to admire. That's it for today's Part
Speaker 2: Time Genius. If you like the show, make sure to
Speaker 2: tell every single person you know, seriously, every single person,
Speaker 2: but thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me Mongaish
Speaker 1: hetique and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
Speaker 1: with support from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 2: The show is.
Speaker 1: Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry,
Speaker 1: with social media support from Sasha Gay trustee Dara Potts
Speaker 1: and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.