Why The Michelin Star Awards 2023 Are So Controversial

Here's some news you probably weren't expecting – a restaurant controversy that involves Gordon Ramsay (at least tangentially) but has nothing to do with any incendiary words spoken by the fiery-tempered Scottish chef. Instead, the controversy revolves around the 2023 Michelin star awards. Spoiler: Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in London retained its three-star status, so there was no need for Ramsay to spew any entertaining invective. In fact, all of the three-star restaurants in Great Britain and Ireland (you can peep the list here) retained their elite status, although no restaurants were newly elevated to this category.

So where does the controversy come in? Not in the UK and Ireland, since there was plenty of upward momentum there, including new additions to the two-star and one-star levels as well as the new Bib Gourmand budget category. No, for brewing scandals, we'll need to hop across the pond, or rather, the channel (a smaller pond), for the recently-released Michelin star awards for French restaurants. Here we'll find plenty of lost stars and chefs who are now furieux.

Even though the Michelin Guide itself hails from France, the powers that be are no homers as they seem to show little favoritism to the restaurants in their native land. For 2023, no fewer than 25 restaurants have lost stars, including two former three-star restaurants, Paris' Guy Savoy and La Rochelle's Christopher Coutanceau. Even before the official release of Michelin's 2023 ratings, the foodies of France were quite upset over the news, and one star-losing chef, Michael Sarran, is claiming that the guide never even explained why he was demoted. In recent years, there have also been French chefs who've refused to claim their stars as they feel that the Michelin media circus just puts too much pressure on them.

Although Michelin star rankings for U.S. restaurants have yet to be released, Eater anticipates that demotions are in store for several of the nation's chefs, as well. How will Americans react to the news, and will they stand together with France to protest that Michelin is unfairly biased in favor of the U.K.? It seems as if the two countries have joined forces against the British in the past, so who knows, perhaps this could be the beginning of an anti-Michelin Franco-American food revolution!