Chefs have spent their lives chasing Michelin stars, and these elusive medals are a testament to years of sacrifice and fame for their restaurants. Most famously in trendy neighborhoods in European capitals, though the past decade has seen an explosion of stars in Asia, especially Japan. However, not all Michelin-honored restaurants are located in cosmopolitan settings, and many are tucked away in unexpected places.
The rarest are 3-star restaurants, which the Michelin Guide describes as “extraordinary cuisine, worthy of a special journey!” While they are usually associated with rare addresses in Paris, New York or Hong Kong, some 3-star restaurants are scattered across France Villages such as the famous Georges Blanc in the village of Vonnas or Maison Lameloise in the village of Chagny.
London food writer Andy Hayler is the lead contributor to these books 1001 Restaurants to Experience Before You Die and Food tour of a lifetime, was the first to dine at all three Michelin star restaurants in the world. He first accomplished the feat in 2004, all in Europe, and spent the next 15 years keeping up with Michelin’s global expansion. “I’m interested in finding the best restaurants in the world, and three Michelin stars is a shortcut to that,” said Heller, who works as a restaurant critic. Elite Traveler Magazines and Maintenance Websites Andy Heller’s Restaurant Guide.
“I love a place in Milan called Il Luogo di Aimo e Nadia, a two-star restaurant that offers extremely simple dishes, but is based on fantastic ingredients, and it’s very well executed,” says Heller . “It’s good that Michelin recognizes places that cook such simple food and yet do so well,” he added, praising the one-star restaurant Elkano and its sister restaurant Kaia in the Spanish fishing village of Getaria, near San Sebastian Kaipe. “They serve turbot grilled on an outdoor charcoal grill and share a magnificent wine cellar, perched on a cliff overlooking the sea,” he said.
Didn’t expect to find a 3-star restaurant in a Tokyo subway station, but that’s where Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat sushi bar owned by chef Jiro Ono immortalized in the documentary Erlang dream of sushi. The restaurant lost its star rating in 2020 after it stopped taking reservations from the public, but the quality of the experience is still admired.
Andy Hayler reports that Japan has other Michelin-starred restaurants in unexpected places, noting that the original location for Tokyo’s then-three-star Sushi Saito was in a parking lot. “When you walked through the gate and parked the car, there was a small door that looked like a janitor’s closet,” recalls Heller, who added, “There was a small restaurant inside that served some of the best sushi in Tokyo.” He thinks , Japan’s most spectacular setting may belong to the now-closed restaurant of French chef Michel Bras on the island of Hokkaido, on the edge of a lake-filled crater.
Jay Fai is a small restaurant in Bangkok, not unlike a thousand street food bars in a bustling city. Jay Fai has earned the coveted one Michelin star, which explains the long queues of customers. Owner Supinya Jansuta, better known as Jay Fai, is a self-taught chef who has been diligently cooking up his signature crispy golden brown crab omelette for years. Jansuta, in her seventies – who wears goggles to protect herself from the hot oil spills – has become a celebrity in Thailand’s capital, and while the wait may be endless, most agree it is worth it.
The unpretentious Jay Fai is one of the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurants on the planet, but until last year, that title was held by Hawker Chan (formerly known as Hong Kong Soy Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodles) at Singapore Hawker Centre. The restaurant, which lost its star last year, specialises in patent-skin chicken soy sauce rice cooked in the famous wood-fired rotisserie. A $500 meal isn’t uncommon in a rare Michelin galaxy, and it’s refreshing to see this dish cost the equivalent of around $2.50.
Serious foodie Dave Beaty started an Instagram page in 2016, documenting his frequent trips to Michelin-starred restaurants.During the pandemic, the project morphed into a project called taste accounting — Brilliantly smart given the author is an accountant — Beaty’s professional-grade photography captures the subject’s stunning culinary expressions.
Originally from Rochester, New York, but currently based in Stockholm, Beaty reports: “Living in Europe has given me the opportunity to try out-of-the-way Michelin-star restaurants, and my favorites are often not in major cities.” The expat explains: “ When these places live up to expectations, it feels more special than sitting in an upscale hotel in Paris.” As a result, Beaty’s favourite 3-star restaurants in Europe include Régis et Jacques Marcon in the idyllic Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid in France and the scenic Waldhotel Sonnora in the remote German village of Dreis in the Moselle Valley with just over 1,300 inhabitants.
Also fond of Waldhotel Sonnora is food writer Andy Hayler, who believes that Germany’s culinary talent is underestimated. “Germany has some of the best restaurants in the world and is an amazing country in the high-end segment because many people don’t associate the country with gastronomy,” Heller said. He reports that his current favorite three-star restaurant in the world may be Victor’s Fine Dining at Christian Bau in the town of Perl, which borders Germany’s borders with Luxembourg and France.
Beaty recounts her experience at Koks, a two-star hotel in the sparsely populated Faroe Islands, temporarily relocated to the more remote island of Greenland. The original restaurant was so inaccessible that guests were instructed to order aperitifs at the center and then be transported to the restaurant by jeep. Another distant but extraordinary dining experience that Beaty cites is the one-star Under, an ingeniously designed underwater restaurant—“a breathtakingly stunning building half-submerged in the sea,” reads the Michelin Guide ”—located at the southern tip of Norway.
In Southern California, the only Chinese restaurant to receive one star is Bistro Na’s in the San Gabriel Valley. Chinese immigrants have whipped up an exciting culinary scene in this area east of Los Angeles, but Temple City’s sleepy suburb is hardly where one would expect to find a Michelin star. The restaurant specialises in Qing court dishes, offering refined dishes in an elegant dining room.
With its new global market and popularity in pop culture, diners pay far more attention to Michelin honors than they did 20 years ago, but even the magic of a star – especially when it lights up the world When the last corner was completely unexpected – it will continue to be there.
by Roger Grody
This article originally appeared on houses and estates Magazine.
