Michelin stars — widely revered as the preeminent culinary honor — are not and never have been available to Texas restaurants. Michelin only rates restaurants in the limited areas the organization publishes travel guides on, which do not include any part of Texas. But the notion that the state could, or rather should, have a Michelin presence has been reinvigorated by Florida’s newly-minted Michelin Guide.
The question circulating in the Dallas restaurant industry is: If Tampa and Orlando can get Michelin’s attention, why not Dallas, Houston, Austin or San Antonio? The answer to that isn’t so straightforward, mostly because nearly the entire scope of Michelin’s operations are intentionally clandestine. But the sentiment grows in the state’s culinary industry that a Texas Michelin Guide is past due.
The Michelin Guide was, and still is, designed to instigate travel
The now-global Michelin Guide system first started as a small travelers guide book that was handed out for free in France in the late 1800s. It was a sales-boosting strategy created by Edward and Andre Michelin, who started the Michelin tire company. The guide encouraged automotive travel by promoting hotel and restaurant destinations. This early history is contextually significant today because it still influences the current modus operandi of the Michelin system, which is to identify and recognize restaurants deemed worth traveling to.
Michelin creates location-specific guides around the world, which are selected by Michelin teams that identify “suitable Guide destinations” based on their expertise and research, says Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides.
“We are always evaluating potential new destinations for the Guide around the world. The decision to introduce a selection in a new place is made by our inspectors when a particular country, state or city shows remarkable gastronomic potential,” he says.
The guide first handed out single-star ratings to fine dining restaurants in 1926, and several years later rolled out a one- to three-star rating system. In order for a restaurant to earn stars today, they must first be in a city that Michelin has established a guide in, and they must meet a set of criteria that is reviewed and judged by anonymous inspectors. The key criteria they look for are quality products, mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, personality of the chef in the cuisine, value for money, and consistency of food.
Michelin guides are chosen carefully, and secretly
How Michelin chooses where they establish guides is a process largely shrouded in mystery. What is widely known, though, is that state and city tourism boards play a pivotal role.
“The Michelin Guide is not yet present in certain areas where the quality of the gastronomic offer has exploded in recent years. To bring these new destinations and their culinary specialties to light, we have initiated a partnership approach with local tourism development agencies,” says Poullennec.
As part of this partnership, local tourism boards “cover some of the costs incurred in establishing the Guide in a new location,” Poullennec adds. “This is to fund communication, digital and marketing campaigns to promote the selections and broadcast them to the world.”
Michelin recently established an Orlando-Miami-Tampa guide after Visit Florida reportedly paid $150,000 for the guide, and the state of California paid $600,000 for a statewide guide.
No one will say for sure if Dallas or Texas are under consideration for a Michelin Guide, but it seems likely
Visit Dallas, the tourism board for the City of Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News that they are “unable to speak to Michelin’s process” or the “possibility of a Dallas Michelin Guide.” In a written response, Visit Dallas president Craig Davis said the city would “welcome the opportunity to be a Michelin Guide city if they chose Dallas.”
“Our culinary scene has so much to offer, and we could not be prouder of the countless world-class restaurants and chefs who call Dallas home,” he says. “Recognition from such an esteemed establishment would be an incredible opportunity to showcase our food scene on a global scale and encourage people from all over the world to visit our city.”
When asked when Texans could expect a Michelin Guide for Texas or any of its cities, Poullennec says, “We look forward to expanding coverage and discovering restaurants in new areas, but currently we don’t have any news to share about new Guide destinations in the U.S.”
Within the local restaurant industry, though, there are rumblings that the City of Dallas has had or is having conversations about getting Michelin here.
Leslie Brenner, former restaurant critic for The News and now a Dallas restaurant consultant representing Meridian and others, says she believes Michelin discussions are happening, and that the pandemic might have stymied efforts that were already in place.
“I do believe it’s in the works and that there are conversations going on. I think each guide is probably a gigantic undertaking, so I’m not surprised that it’s not here yet,” she says.
Matthew Ciccone, owner of Tatsu, a new 10-table omakase restaurant in Deep Ellum, says it’s hard to understand how Texas, with its exploding population and expansive culinary scene, doesn’t already have a Michelin Guide.
“It just doesn’t make sense that Tampa has a guide now and Texas doesn’t,” he says. “The Florida addition was surprising that it came before Texas. I have no idea why that would be.”
The Dallas restaurant industry is ready for Michelin
Undoubtedly, Michelin’s watchful eye would change the way many Dallas restaurants operate, but some feel they’re already prepared for if and when the possibility of earning stars is on the table.
Ciccone says they opened Tatsu with the goal of being one of the reasons Michelin finally comes to Texas. They could have opened the 10-seat restaurant in a city with a Michelin presence already, but Ciccone says opening it in Dallas was a calculated choice hinged on the expectation that it’s only a matter of time until Michelin does have a guide here.
“We’re trying to be a two- or three-star restaurant, and I think we have the caliber of staff to do that,” he says.
He thinks the restaurant’s chef and namesake, Tatsuya Sekiguchi, might very well be one of the top 10 sushi chefs in the world, and he deserves Michelin’s consideration. Ciccone says Sekiguchi wouldn’t say that about himself because he’s so humble, but he and the rest of the small restaurant’s staff have everything it takes to receive Michelin’s highest recognition.
Junior Borges, executive chef of Meridian in Dallas, says he and his staff are eager for the chance to earn a Michelin star.
“We’ve always hoped — and I still hope obviously — that Michelin will come,” he says. “My goal has always been that we need to operate as if this is a Michelin-starred kitchen. We need to push every day as if this is a place that could be in New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago.”
What would change if Michelin came to Texas
If Michelin were to create a Texas guide, Borges says that a few things would likely happen. The state would gain significant national and international attention, the food would get even better, and top tier culinary professionals from other states would move to the area.
Borges recently hosted a dinner with Dallas-born chef Stefano Secchi, whose New York restaurant Rezdora has a Michelin star, and he says the wages paid in high-level restaurants in Texas are close to the wages paid in restaurants in cities with a much higher cost of living. The opportunity to work in Michelin-starred restaurants in more affordable cities like Dallas and Houston would be a major draw for people, he says.
“I think it’s almost a little past time for Michelin to be here. I think it could have been here two years ago, but it was also two years ago that we were in the middle of Covid, so you take that with a grain of salt,” Borges says. “I think it is the right time now though.”
Dallas chef John Tesar, whose Orlando restaurant Knife and Spoon just received one of the first Michelin stars given out in Florida, says Texas has a problem with uniformity and cooperation amongst its culinary industries, which is likely part of the reason why Michelin isn’t here yet. But having Michelin here would help solve that problem, he says.
“People here would really have to focus and stop breathing their own smoke, because it is a trusted rating system. And if you want it, you have to believe in it,” he says. “It’s something that the consumer can trust and it has integrity. It’s a true honor, and I really wish everyone in the country had the ability to be rated by it.”
