Some Displeased By Michelin Restaurant Ratings
The New York Times has an article about Japanese critics of the best-selling Michelin guide to Tokyo restaurants. Here’s a short excerpt:
Food critics, magazines and even the governor of Tokyo have questioned the guide’s choice of restaurants and ratings. A handful of chefs proudly proclaimed that they had turned down chances to be listed. One, Toshiya Kadowaki, said his nouveau Japonais dishes, including a French-inspired rice with truffles, did not need a Gallic seal of approval.
“Japanese food was created here, and only Japanese know it,” Mr. Kadowaki said in an interview. “How can a bunch of foreigners show up and tell us what is good or bad?”
[...]
For their part, consumers here offer mixed reviews of Michelin. Yukihiro Nagatomi, a banker in his late 30s, said he recently spent about $200 to try a Japanese-style restaurant called Kanda because of its three-star rating in Michelin.
He said he was dismayed to find what he called egregious violations of Japanese cuisine’s minimalist tenets, like an overly large slice of eel sushi that disrupted the dish’s balance.
“You needed a knife and fork to eat that,” Mr. Nagatomi said. “I can see why it would appeal to Frenchmen who don’t use chopsticks.”
With all the doubts about Michelin’s understanding of Japanese tastes, some chefs say a rating in the guide has become a liability. Kunio Tokuoka, head chef at the high-end restaurant Kitcho, said the main Tokyo branch of his restaurant refused a listing in Michelin for fear of turning off customers seeking authentic Japanese cuisine.
Mr. Kadowaki, the nouveau Japonais chef, said he turned down a Michelin rating for his restaurant, Kadowaki, partly because the idea of ranking restaurants offended Japanese sensibility against bragging and putting others down.
I found this article via Debito.org, where Arudou Debito presented the article as an example of anti-foreign feeling in Japan, even presenting a rumor about discrimination:
The fact that some Japanese chefs don’t like to be judged by foreigners (even if they are culinary experts)–as if their palettes apparently aren’t attuned properly to Japanese tastes. (Kinda in the same vein when Moody’s downgraded Japan’s financial rating some years ago, and the GOJ questioned their ranking abilities as well. How dare foreigners comment unfavorably about Japan?)
I also heard a rumor that one of the restaurants that received some stars refuses foreign customers entry. But that’s just a rumor.
Ignoring the unverified and vague rumor, it’s pretty hard for me to view the unfavorable reaction of some restaurants to the Michelin guide in such a negative way. Tastes in food differ from country to country. A restaurant guide mainly based on the findings of French culinary experts is not necessarily going to match the general tastes of Japanese culinary experts. I found the Japanese media’s hype-fest over the Michelin guide to be pretty annoying, and I think restaurant owners and food snobs have every right to complain about the weight being given to the guide book. (It is unfair to suggest that the French culinary experts who judged dozens of Japanese restaurants used forks instead of chopsticks, though.)
