The Texas Food Scene Can’t Decide Whether It Wants a Michelin Guide
Aaron Bludorn still remembers the dread. When he was the executive chef of N.Y.C.’s Café Boulud it was his duty to take the annual call from the Michelin Guide to learn if the restaurant would keep its star. “You’d wait, and it was terrifying,” Bludorn told Robb Report. One year, he was traveling in Japan when the call was to come and when he didn’t hear from a Michelin representative, his mind began to wander as to what would happen if the phone never rang. “Maybe if I don’t get it, I can join a monastery out here,” he recalled with a laugh. He waited up until 4 a.m. to hear the news. It was good—Café Boulud retained its star—but he felt more relief than elation. Such is the immense pressure that comes with Michelin stars. So after a decade of working in high-pressure N.Y.C. kitchens, the chef decamped to Texas to open his own restaurants—and he has no desire for stars to reenter his life.
“I grew tired of Michelin,” says the chef who now helms the hit restaurants Bludorn and Navy Blue in Houston. There’s “freedom given without Michelin being here.”
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Texas arguably has one of the most exciting restaurant scenes in the United States. Yet the Michelin Guide—that bastion of fine dining—hasn’t yet bestowed its iconic stars on the state. While some chefs see that as a slight, others like Bludorn are hoping that the French tire company continues to butt out of Texas’s culinary landscape.
Throughout the world, the Michelin Guide’s ranking of restaurants drives the decisions of chefs and diners. Chefs strive to join the ranks of the top spots in their respective regions, while diners choose where to eat—and even travel—solely based on Michelin’s word. In the United States, only Chicago, California, Florida, New York City, and Washington, D.C. have Michelin Guides (it was announced recently that both Colorado and Atlanta will be getting their first guides later this year). And a number of chefs in Texas think that the Lone Star State should be among those select regions.
“I definitely want them to come,” Junior Borges of Meridian in Dallas told Robb Report. “As a chef, to have stars is always a dream … By having [the Michelin Guide], you will hopefully push more talent to come into town, which then hopefully will push the scene even further.”
Chefs throughout the state agreed with Borges, including Fermin Nu?ez of Suerte and Este in Austin, Casey La Rue of Carte Blanche in Dallas, and restaurateur June Rodil of March in Houston. They all see benefits to having the Michelin Guide in Texas: Along with attracting even more culinary talent to the state, they believe that a Texas Michelin Guide would bring more financial investment into restaurants and Texas as a whole, and elevate the state on an international scale.
“I don’t really see an argument as to why they shouldn’t come,” La Rue told Robb Report. “Currently, the only reason to travel to Texas, from an outsider’s perspective, would be for barbecue. No one looks at the state or any of the major cities for anything other than that … If we had Michelin stars, then we would be able to get more recognition and [be] more legitimized.”
But while all of those things may be a byproduct of having a Texas Michelin Guide, other chefs believe that the challenges far outweigh any potential upsides. As with all awards, once you receive one, the pressure is on to keep it. And that pressure has long been documented when it comes to Michelin stars. Recently, the guide started telling chefs ahead of time when they’re going to lose a star, to give them time to digest the news and protect their mental health. But even with that guardrail in place, chefs—who already exist in the high-stress kitchen environment—will feel the weight of a Michelin star.
“One of the greatest things was not having Michelin,” Bludorn said, concerned about what a potential Michelin Guide would do to Texas’s culinary scene, as chefs strive to fit into the box that the company has deemed acceptable for fine dining. Creativity may suffer, he said, and trying to live up to those standards would be unsustainable.
Chris Shepherd, formerly of Houston’s Underbelly Hospitality, agreed, becoming more impassioned about the subject as we talked. By the end of our conversation, he was vehemently opposed to the idea of the Michelin Guide coming to Texas.
“Cooking is about soul, and it’s what you do with it. It’s about running the restaurant in a soulful manner, in a way that speaks to the story of what it is,” Shepherd said. “When that story is all about going for a star, it changes. It really does change.”
And even chefs who supported the idea of a Texas Michelin Guide noted how there are just some things that are more important than awards, like the well-being of their staff. On that point, Nu?ez fell into the same camp as chefs like Bludorn and Shepherd. The idea of balance, of prioritizing the people behind a restaurant and making sure they’re treated fairly and equitably, is not necessarily a factor in Michelin inspectors’ visits. But for these chefs, that is one of the No. 1 things about being a restaurant owner—and simply a good person.
Despite what these chefs think, though—whether they’re for or against the Michelin Guide releasing its assessment of Texas restaurants—many believe stars will, at some point, find their way to the Lone Star State. A number of the chefs I spoke with said they’ve heard through the grapevine that the guide is interested in coming to Texas. And in the past, tourism boards have helped cover the costs of creating a guide in a new location, which may help incentivize the Michelin Guide to assess their restaurants. In 2019, California paid $600,000 to assist the guide in its efforts, while Florida coughed up $150,000 in 2021.
“It’s not Michelin saying that there’s no fine dining here,” La Rue said about the lack of a Texas guide. “It’s Michelin saying that they’re not getting paid yet.”
California justified the expense at the time with data on the value of attracting foodies. “Culinary travelers are among California’s highest-spending visitors, staying on average 10 percent longer and spending 20 percent more on their trip than visitors to California overall,” Visit California president and CEO Caroline Beteta told Robb Report when the all-state guide was first announced.
For its part, a spokesperson for the Michelin Guide told Robb Report via email that “states don’t pay for the Michelin Guide … To bring these new destinations and their culinary specialties to light, Michelin has initiated a partnership approach with local destination marketing organizations (DMOs), which covers some of the costs incurred to promote the selections … The involvement of DMOs in establishing a new Guide does not have any influence on the inspectors’ judgments for the restaurants in the selection, or award distinctions.”
In another email, Gwendal Poullennec, the international director of the Michelin Guide, said the organization didn’t have any announcements to make about a potential Texas guide. Travel Texas, the state’s tourism board, declined to comment, and La Rue said that the Dallas tourism board told him it would never pay. (The Dallas tourism board did not respond to Robb Report‘s request for comment.)
If—or when—the Michelin Guide does come to Texas, it’ll inevitably have an impact on these restaurants and their chefs. While Nunez said he would celebrate any of his restaurants receiving a star, he wouldn’t be upset if Suerte or Este were overlooked by the inspectors. “I’ve always been a firm believer that awards are the byproduct of the hard work that we do in the restaurants,” he said, “not the reason why we do what we do at the restaurants.” Rodil, meanwhile, expressed that she would be “crestfallen” if March wasn’t awarded a star.
Of course, those chefs are in favor of the Michelin Guide releasing a Texas ranking. So what of chefs like Bludorn, who see mostly negatives when they think of a Texas guide assessing the state’s culinary scene? If his Bludorn or Navy Blue were awarded a star, would he give it back, like a select few chefs have done in the past?
“I wouldn’t give back a Michelin star,” Bludorn said. “I still see them as an arbiter … It’s a huge honor.”
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