Michelin mystery

[Bill Poster]

Topic of conversation last night was Ramsey eaterie losing one star and my GF brought up an interesting topic- she swears Tokyo has far more 3 star restaurants than FRANCE. This may be an exaggeration (after two bottles) but could someone clear this up? Why so many?

[JasonTrue]

The substance is correct but the details are a little off.

This thread covers more.

Tokyo has more Michelin-starred restaurants than Paris, though I don't know how it compares in terms of 3-star restaurants.

[Bill Poster]

Hmmm.. I wonder if there is any influence from the Yakuza!

[Peter Green]

This is something I'd also wondered about, and I intend to look into fairly soon.

But, given the Japanese nature of putting themselves 100% into being the act, and given the long gestation period of fine dining in Tokyo, maybe it's not that strange?

In any case, I should have fun.

[Bu Pun Su]

As of today,

I think Paris has 10 3-star restaurants whereas Tokyo has "only" 8

I was fortunate to go and eat a lot in Tokyo last month

Tokyo is indeed a very interesting city for dining

It's very diverse in terms of pretty much everything and quality is high. IMHO, Tokyo is as good as if not slightly better than New York for food (I know that many would disagree for this). From the point of view of strictly haute cuisine, I think Paris still has the edge, but the rests Tokyo surpasses Paris (i.e. one will definitely eat better French food in Tokyo vs eating Japanese food in Paris etc.)

So, Michelin did not "randomly" give Tokyo the awards though I still think that 191 stars are a too "generous"; 120-150 stars would make more sense. It should not be a surprised that in 2-3 years time, we will see Michelin guide for another place in Asia, such as: Hong Kong (plus Shanghai or Macau), they should visit Osaka/Kyoto as well. I don't know much about the food in London, so cannot comment on why the Michelin stars awarded there are quite limited.