On Sunday, November 16, High Chef head choose Tom Colicchio joined Houston chef and media persona Chris Shepherd for a dialog centered round Colicchio’s new e book, Why I Cook dinner. The 2-plus hour dialog coated varied moments in Colicchio’s profession, together with his resolution to work with restaurateur Danny Meyer on New York’s legendary Gramercy Tavern and his resolution to take part in High Chef.
In the course of the viewers Q&A portion, Shepherd requested Colicchio for his tackle the Michelin Information, which simply launched its first Texas version earlier this month. Though Colicchio has received eight James Beard Awards, together with the ultra-prestigious Excellent Chef award in 2010, his signature restaurant Craft hasn’t held a Michelin star since 2007. Not surprisingly, the chef has some objections to the France-based restaurant ranking system.
“I grew up in New York dreaming of New York Occasions stars not Michelin stars,” Colicchio mentioned. Then he continued:
“I’ve a tough time with it. The Michelin star eating places in France to get three stars was a restaurant you must exit of your manner for, that was the entire concept. Two stars was actually nice, additionally,” he mentioned.
“Once you opened up, you bought one star first. It didn’t matter who you’re. And also you needed to get one earlier than you bought two earlier than three. You couldn’t open and get three. The cooks who bought two — you learn Burgundy Stars, Bernard Loiseau talked about how once you labored to get to 3 he was terrified he was going to lose a star.”
Equally, Colicchio mentioned he isn’t a fan of Michelin giving stars to informal eating places such because the 4 Texas barbecue joints that now maintain one star every. “I’ve a tough time with a pizzeria getting a star,” he mentioned. “Not that it’s a foul pizzeria. It ought to get one thing, nevertheless it’s not a Michelin star. I don’t suppose Michelin was arrange to do this, and I discovered it very unusual.”
Colicchio additionally cited Michelin’s lack of transparency about its course of for ranking eating places. He is skeptical about its claims to revisit eating places on annual foundation to make sure they’re doing the work crucial to keep up their scores.
“I’d like to know what number of reviewers. My understanding is there’s solely about three in New York. What number of eating places do we’ve in New York? You’re telling me they get to these eating places every year,” he mentioned.
“I do know the write-ups that I had have been the identical write-ups three or 4 years in a row. I’d name up and say — trigger you may name them up — ‘I haven’t served that dish in 4 years. Why is it within the write-up?’”
Though Colicchio acknowledged that Michelin coming to Texas is “nice for the restaurant neighborhood,” he summed up his place succinctly:
“I’m not a giant fan,” he mentioned.
