This story has been updated.
The pinnacle of dining awards is finally coming to Texas. The Michelin Guide announced Tuesday that it would be expanding into five cities in Texas, including San Antonio.
The guide —a restaurant star rating system run by the French tire company considered to be the zenith of professional culinary accomplishment — will be released this year, to the surprise and delight of San Antonio chefs.
“I’m in shock, I really am,” said Diego Galicia, chef and co-owner of Mixtli, one of the local restaurants fellow chefs tagged as likely to receive at least one star. Galicia said he and partner Rico Torres had no idea the announcement was coming.
In its announcement, Michelin noted that its anonymous inspectors, as they’re called, have already made multiple visits to restaurants in San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth.
“They operate like ninjas,” said Galicia, who said he and Torres were now playing a guessing game on which recent guests might have been inspectors, but “it’s impossible,” he admitted.
“The Texas culinary scene has proven to be an exhilarating one, with multicultural influences, homegrown ingredients and talent that is rich in ambition,” said Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide in its news release. “Foodies and travel enthusiasts alike will find something to enjoy, with such a broad dining scene spanning farm-to-table dishes, fusion cuisine, upscale dining and the famous Texas-style barbecue.”
Michelin stars have recently gotten more attention thanks to the hit TV show The Bear, which follows chef Carmy Berzatto and his team as they go to anxiety-producing lengths to earn a coveted star for their beef sandwich-turned-fine dining establishment.
Even the Michelin Guide itself has capitalized on the show’s popularity.
San Antonio has long caught the attention of the James Beard Foundation, which has nominated many local chefs over the past several years. Most recently, Christopher Cullum of Attaboy was named a finalist for Best Chef: Texas; Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin of Best Quality Daughter has also been nominated in the Emerging Chef category, and the trio behind Curry Boys BBQ, Andrew Ho, Andrew Samia and Sean Wen, were named semifinalists.
Previous nominees include Galicia, Lattoia Massey, aka Nicola Blaque of The Jerk Shack; John Russ of Clementine; Ernest Servantes and David Kirkland of Burnt Bean Co.; Esaul Ramos Jr. of 2M Smokehouse and Alex Paredes of Carnitas Lonjas.
Bruce Auden of Big on the Banks, Andrew Weissman of La Reve and Steven McHugh of Cured have all been finalists multiple times.
Jason Dady, a finalist for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2012 for his collection of restaurants, called news of the Michelin Guide coming to San Antonio “arguably the most important addition to the Texas culinary scene.
“The Michelin Guide, worldwide, is renowned for setting the tone for levels of restaurant quality and service. And I think it’s about darn time that Texas, and San Antonio, get a shot at showcasing that to the world.”
The guide, which has long been in major U.S. cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco, has expanded recently to include cities like Atlanta and Miami. In addition to stars, the guides include Bib Gourmand, which highlights restaurants that offer great quality food at good prices, and the Green Star, for restaurants on the forefront of sustainable gastronomy.
That includes restaurants like Pharm Table Apothecary Kitchen, which focuses on locally sourced, heritage ingredients and sustainable practices. Chef Elizabeth Johnson, who said she knew the guide was coming in part because she sits on Visit San Antonio’s culinary advisory council, said San Antonio’s culinary scene has grown “leaps and bounds” in the last decade.
“Had this happened 10 years ago, I can guarantee San Antonio wouldn’t have been on this list,” said Johnson, who helped write the city’s application to become a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2017. Doing the work to win that designation, she said, “helped us understand and kind of excavate who we really are.”
Tourism boards pay for the privilege of hosting the Michelin Guide; Tuesday’s announcement was made in conjunction with Travel Texas, which is funded out of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Tourism.
“The [Michelin] will be a phenomenal marketing tool as part of Visit San Antonio’s efforts to elevate our city as a global brand and bring the world to San Antonio,” said Visit San Antonio President and CEO Marc Anderson.
More than half travelers said they would extend their stay at a destination with Michelin-starred restaurants, according to a recent study noted by Visit San Antonio, while two-thirds said they would choose a Michelin destination over a comparable one.
The Texas Restaurant Association, which just wrapped up its annual restaurant show in San Antonio Monday, and will be back in the Alamo City from 2026 through 2028, welcomed Michelin to Texas, “a culinary destination that’s already earned a worldwide reputation for delicious, diverse cuisine and warm hospitality,” said President and CEO Emily Williams Knight.
The restaurant business surpassed health care in Texas last year as the number one private employer in the state, with 57,000 restaurants employing 1.4 million people.
