----------------------------------- sanji Sun Jan 13, 2008 7:54 am Re: Michelin Guide 2008 - Tokyo ----------------------------------- An interesting article from Japan Today, on the 29th November 2007. It is focusing on awarded restaurants being overbooked, and other issues related to the facts that many persons testing the restaurants are in fact not Japanese... Rising objections to Michelin Guide Tokyo The Michelin gourmet guidebook’s first edition in Japan has become big news. While those restaurants given stars garnered a lot of news coverage, some gourmet professionals and journalists question Michelin’s way of rating restaurants. The book has certainly caused a frenzy of activity. The day after Michelin released the guide on Nov 19, eight restaurants that had been given 3 stars were flooded with phone calls for reservations. The manager of French restaurant L’osier says: “We got more than 200 phone calls. Our two lines were busy all day. We are now fully booked through the end of the year and early into next year. ” While the manager is happy about 100% reservations, one of his chefs was a bit apprehensive about the unexpected workload, saying, “Our restaurant is relatively small and we’ve been supported by a steady number of regular customers so far. Now we will have to deal with nearly double the number of new customers every day for the next three months. We unfortunately cannot accept our regular customers. It’s a really unexpected situation.” The 150 restaurants, which Michelin Guide Tokyo introduces, are almost all small- and middle-scale ones, making it hard for them to cope with big numbers. Food journalist Noboru Umeya says, “Good restaurants are created by customers who really love them. Since Michelin Guide Tokyo’s release, there will be more one shot customers and foreign tourists who just want to ‘see stars’ or men who want to hit on women. I think they will become noisy and crowded.” What is important is how reasonable the rating is. As those who have read Michelin Guide books in other countries know, Michelin Guide always introduces some restaurants without stars. But Michelin Guide Tokyo gives stars to all the restaurants it introduces. In the French version, the book doesn’t have any photos of restaurants but just lists their names and addresses. Of 3,641 restaurants listed, 527 (14.5%) are given stars. In the New York version, only 39 of 526 restaurants (7.4%) are given stars. Those lower percentages make the rating valuable. Thus, restaurant chefs in those countries care about a Michelin rating. Gourmet critic Masuhiro Yamamoto questions Michelin’s way of assessing restaurants in Japan. He says, “Although Michelin said they researched 1,500 restaurants, it’s hard to believe since those restaurants are not listed in the book. The first edition of the Tokyo version lists 150 restaurants with stars, including eight with 3 stars, which seems excessive. In Europe, there are countries that have no restaurants with stars, such as Austria and Luxembourg. To improve the reliability of their rating, Michelin should explain why they don’t list restaurants without stars and whether it’s because they were refused by restaurants to research them or because they thought they are not worth including in the list.” Michelin said that its three European and two Japanese researchers visited restaurants incognito. Some restaurants did refuse to be listed in the book, Michelin said without disclosing the number of surveyed restaurants. Yamamoto points out that Michelin doesn’t have any unified criteria for assigning stars. “For example, the Japanese restaurant Aoyagi is not listed in the book, although it’s a subsidiary restaurant of another Japanese restaurant Ryugin which was given 2 stars. But French restaurant Joel Robuchon was given 3 stars and its group restaurant L’atelier de Joel Rubuchon got 2 stars, so Michelin emphasized the relationship between the two in this case. Michelin, thus, doesn’t have any unified criteria for rating.” Umeya also criticizes Michelin over its blowfish judgment. “I think only Japanese chefs have developed a high quality of techniques to cook blowfish. Of four blowfish restaurants listed in the book, Tsukiji Yamamoto is undoubtedly one of the top blowfish restaurants in the world. But it was given only 2 stars. I’m very suspicious that foreign researchers can understand the sensitive taste of blowfish by trying it just once or something.” A Michelin spokesperson responded by saying, “Our foreign researchers have so far visited Japanese restaurants that were given 2 stars in New York and Los Angeles. They are capable enough of judging the quality of Japanese cuisine. We’re confident in the survey.” In any case, diners will be seeing stars when they get their bill after visiting those restaurants. The lunch menus cost around 10,000 yen and dinner courses are 30,000- 50,000 yen per person. (Translated by Taro Fujimoto) source : http://www.japantoday.com/jp/shukan/425