The Michelin Guide — the international dining review system from the French tire company — has been shaking things up lately. The organization recently awarded coveted stars to a casual taqueria in Mexico, an ice cream shop in Taiwan, and a counter-service Mexican seafood restaurant in Los Angeles. It’s a trend that seems to signal a change in how the organization rates restaurants: No longer are businesses on the Michelin Guide selected based on the relative fanciness of the experience but on the quality of the meal and it’s a reflection of the local dining culture regardless of whether it’s an upscale Japanese omakase or an affordable cart serving barbacoa. What’s next? A barbecue restaurant? That’s a very real possibility now that Michelin’s guide to Texas is finally happening.
Michelin announced its entrance into Texas in July after months of rumors. Its anonymous inspectors have already scouted restaurants in five spotlighted cities — Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth — and determined which are worthy of its desirable designations. It took this long for Michelin Texas to happen, a combination of convincing the powers-that-be that the state is a worthy dining region and hefty buy-ins from tourism boards. Now the question is whether Austin restaurants will get actual stars when the full guide is announced on Monday, November 11.
Without a doubt, Michelin is important to diners and the restaurant industry. For users, it’s a handy indicator of where people should eat, especially for international travelers seeking out destination-worthy dining experiences. For the latter, getting recognition from the organization is proof of dining excellence, not to mention a likely economic boost.
There are downsides of Michelin, too — Eater and other publications have covered them extensively — but to the culinary community in Texas, the guide signals a new era in dining and talent cultivation.
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It seemed like a no-brainer that Texas should get Michelin. Its foodways are particularly distinct, rooted in Indigenous, Mexican, cowboy, Czech, German, and Americana cuisines. “It’s going to be great for the state,” says Sara Mardanbigi, the co-owner and director of operations of Austin Mexican restaurant Nixta Taqueria. “It’s going to bring in a lot of different types of folks into our backyard. It’s exciting to be opening up the doors rather than keeping them closed to others.”
Chef Simone Tong, the co-owner of modern Chinese restaurant Zoé Tong, understands the powerful international appeal of Michelin. Before moving to Austin, her now-closed New York restaurant Silver Apricot had received attention from the guide’s inspectors. “It’s good for people around the world to travel to Texas so they have a reference,” she says.
For others, the Michelin Guide’s arrival feels symbolic of a growing maturity of the Texas culinary scene and respect for its traditions. Zoé Tong co-owner Mathew Hyland believes the inspectors’ arrival in Austin offers people an alternative restaurant “critic” perspective in the city. “It’s nice having this other reviewing criticism to a degree.”
Chefs and couple Lorin and Mathew Peters were part of a group rallying for Michelin’s expansion to Texas. Lorin operates Cookie Rich bakery and Goldy’s food truck, while Mathew works for high-end cocktail bar Prélude and forthcoming tasting menu restaurant Maven. Both alums of three-Michelin-starred restaurant the French Laundry, the pair decided to move to Austin, Lorin’s home state, from Napa Valley in 2017. At the time their friends, chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry among them, questioned why they didn’t go somewhere with a thriving fine dining scene like New York or Chicago. “‘Why are you taking [Mathew] to Texas?’” Lorin recalls Keller asking. “I was like, ‘Chef, I promise, just watch. Texas is going to get there one day.’” This past summer while Keller was visiting Texas, she revisited the conversation. “‘Alright, Chef, how are you feeling about Texas now?’” she asked. “‘God bless Texas,’ he said. “He gets it now.”
But it’s not just about external perceptions of the state’s restaurant industry. Others have praised the guide as a new achievement to strive for, keeping and drawing even more young talent to the state whereas in the past some left to pursue stars in a different market. Wesley Lucas, the director of communications for the city’s tourism agency, Visit Austin (which also helped pay Michelin to come to the city) remembers talking to a professor at Travis Early College High School about the recent guide announcement. “She was like, ‘This is such an amazing thing, because now, these young students who want to make a career don’t have to leave Texas, they don’t have to leave their homes.’”
Emily Williams Knight, the CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association, agrees. “Not only can we educate here, but we can tell these young people, who are the next rising talents, to stay in Texas, open your restaurant, and strive for that Michelin designation. It’s going to change the education and interest sides of young people, who are going to drive the future of the workforce and the quality of cuisine here in Texas.”
Along with keeping talented Texan chefs in the state, Michelin will attract out-of-state cooks to Texas too. “You want to move to a city that has that support structure for chefs at that level,” says Lorin Peters.
Michelin translates into money for cities; it’s why tourism boards pay the organization to come to their locales. Governments and business associations see it as a worthy investment in a city’s tourism appeal. The guide practically promotes itself (publications around the world including this one regularly compete to cover its annual lists).
Knight uses Michelin to help plan her trips and points to a frequently cited 2019 survey by consulting firm Ernst & Young that found two out of three tourists would decide to travel to a Michelin city rather than one without the guide, and that 71 percent of tourists would spend more in a city with a Michelin Guide.
Lucas shares that view. “We certainly see the benefit of growing our international visitations, because they’re going to stay longer, they’re going to spend more dollars.” It’s not just the Michelin-recognized restaurants that would benefit, either. People will spend money on hotels (for which Michelin also awards lesser-known “keys”), transportation, souvenirs, and other unrated restaurant meals.
Chefs like Mathew Peters also see opportunity for independent restaurants to boost their revenue. “Hopefully the influx of tourism helps fill in the gaps where people struggle,” he says, referring to Austin’s slow business seasons like this past summer. “We’re excited about small businesses being able to be profitable by the end of the year because of the attraction of what you’re doing.”
While there are potential positives to Michelin coming to Texas, there are worthy concerns that the guide could change Austin’s dining scene for the worse, moving the city away from what makes its dining scene so special. Even before the guide’s arrival the city was already experiencing a proliferation of tasting menus and costly dining experiences, slowly edging out the accessible, DIY, and at times irreverent community staples that enriched the Austin food scene.
Nixta’s Mardanbigi notes that Austin’s food community is characterized by its “camaraderie and collaboration.” However, when she spoke to restaurant owners in Miami, they shared how everything “became a lot more competitive” after Michelin published in 2022, and chefs began to share fewer resources with others. She hopes that doesn’t happen here. “I think it’ll probably take a lot longer if that were to happen, but I can see that potentially,” she says, adding that ultimately it’s up to the community to ensure they continue to celebrate and uplift each other.
Others worry whether Michelin’s processes take into account the full scope of the businesses and people involved to ensure that alleged bad actors aren’t rewarded.
Speaking with Eater in July, Joseph Gomez, chef and owner of Mexican food truck Con Todo, expressed apprehension about Michelin’s ability to view restaurants through a holistic lens, taking into account not just the food and service but the overall workplace. He worries that the pressures of earning and maintaining stars could create toxic kitchen environments (see: The Bear for an anxiety-inducing dramatization of the pressures of fine dining kitchens). “It’s going to create more abuse in kitchens [and] higher-ups taking advantage of their employees,” he says. Ideally, he’d like to see the organization be transparent about how they ensure they’re recognizing restaurants offering safe and healthy environments, but he doesn’t trust that it’ll happen.
In recent years, organizations such as the James Beard Foundation have taken on this task, installing new processes for vetting nominees for the James Beard Awards and pledging to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion following a fraught 2020 awards season; the Beard’s effort, while important, has been a bumpy ride at best.
“People are going to start pushing a little bit harder,” Mathew Peters says. “It’s keeping restaurants true to what they are and what they do.”
Ultimately, Gomez believes it’s up to service workers to take care of themselves and band together to hold chefs, owners, and investors accountable by creating their own spaces to share experiences without fear of retribution.
Gomez is also skeptical of the inspectors’ ability to fairly judge Latin American cuisine. “I’m still on the fence with it. I just feel weird about a European guy just judging Mexican food?”
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The idea of a seemingly fancy-pants reviewing system coming into Texas — the land where people wear jeans to high-end restaurants or the lack of true fine dining establishments in Austin at least — seems incongruent. But that perception isn’t wholly accurate. Mardanbigi and
Texas restaurants received fact-checking questionnaires from Michelin over the summer, but it’s unclear exactly what those forms indicate. From there, a select number of restaurants received invitations to the Michelin gala in Houston in November, where stars are awarded. Consequently, by receiving an invite one might expect to receive some sort of designation whether that be a Bib Gourmand designation, stars, or otherwise.
Chefs hope that Michelin Texas reflects the state well. Tong notes that the Singapore guide includes food hawker stalls, an essential and unique dining experience in the Southeast Asian country. “They do know how to adapt,” she says. “I hope they know how to adapt to Texas.”
Many of the people Eater talked to predict that the state will receive the first barbecue restaurant star. Mardanbigi believes Franklin Barbecue will get one star. “Aaron [Franklin] is such a stalwart in the city,” she says.
She and her husband, Nixta co-owner and chef Edgar Rico, have visited several Michelin-starred restaurants in the past few years in California and Japan. To her, the through-line through those experiences was “really warm hospitality” — something that’s definitely achievable in Texas.
