Michelin Comes to New York, Rates Restaurants

NEW YORK - The Michelin guides, guardians of France's gourmet standards for over a century, brought their prestige rankings to the New World on Tuesday, awarding top honors to four restaurants with a decidedly French flavor.

The three-star gourmet ranking was bestowed on Le Bernardin, Per Se, Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges, cited as "an exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey."

The winners were no surprise, since they are among the best-known restaurants, and also among the highest-priced and hardest to get a reservation.

Of the four getting the highest rankings, three are restaurants headed by French chefs. The sole American, Per Se's Thomas Keller, was trained as a chef in France and gained fame for his French Laundry restaurant in California's Napa Valley.

There were four two-star ratings: Daniel, Masa, Bouley and Danube.

The announcement of the winners came after months of speculation about whom, among New York's celebrity chefs, would win the stars.

Michelin's Jean-Luc Naret, director of publications, said that his inspectors, all of them Europeans trained in France, devoured hundreds of meals in the city to compile the ratings. In the final stretch, they went "as many as 10 or 12 times" to the starred finalists, to make sure they were certain.

The inspectors "became New Yorkers" in their quest to find the city's finest dining, he said. But they remained anonymous and secretive as they went about their business.

"It's a great job—but it's lonely. It's a bit like being in the witness-protection program—but the food is better," said Naret.

Bouley a Double Winner

David Bouley, a double winner with his Danube and Bouley restaurants, both of them getting two stars, said he was "very happy" with his ranking but that the awards process was difficult for the French and the Americans alike.

"The guide has had a challenge in New York City because it is such an ethnic and controversial place to rank restaurants," said Bouley.

Also making comparisons difficult, New York's restaurants possess a nightly table turnover rate that is much higher than France, seating two or three different groups per table, whereas in Paris "customers believe they own their table for the night," Naret said.

That means that restaurateurs have an especially difficult time maintaining the ambience and service Michelin requires. But Naret said Michelin did not lower its standards for New York, which he said "definitely is a rival to Paris" in its restaurant culture.

Michelin has published its travel guides since 1900, when the tiremaker decided to promote motoring by guiding Europeans to the best restaurants. The rankings have evolved into a coveted prize among Europe's chefs.

Of the 54 three-star restaurants worldwide, half are in France. Paris has 10, while London has only one.

Michelin gives two-star ratings to places with "excellent cooking, worth a detour" and one stars to 31, for "a very good restaurant in its category."

While many of the starred rankings were French-style eateries, Brooklyn steakhouse Peter Luger, downtown's eclectic WD-50 and sushi innovator Nobu also won starred rankings.

That left 23,000 of the city's restaurants starless.

Tony May, owner of the San Domenico, one of the city's best known Italian restaurants, said the rankings "are a good thing for all of New York's restaurants" because they offer an alternative to the newspaper food reviews and the ubiquitous Zagat guides, which are based on popular votes.

The guide reviews 507 city restaurants and 50 hotels. The French guide book maker said it will expand to other American cities in the near future.