SAN ANTONIO – Good news, Texas foodies. The Michelin Guide is coming to the Lone Star State, including San Antonio, according to the guide and Texas Travel.
Texas will be the 11th location to be added to the prestigious series of guidebooks. Because of Texas’ famous cuisine of barbeque, seafood, and famous Tex-Mex, The Michelin Guide chose to highlight its rich food culture.
“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.
But what makes this feat so special? The renowned Michelin Guide has a particular process it follows to ensure proper judgment and reviews of restaurants. The company hires anonymous inspectors to be customers of the selected restaurant. Without revealing their identity, they will pay for the meal and make multiple re-visits throughout a period of time.
The employees aren’t taken lightly; they are expected to have 10 or more years of experience in the restaurant or hotel industry, proper objectivity of the environment and food the restaurant has to offer, and extensive knowledge of the process.
“Working as a team, the inspectors update their selection and make each of their decisions in a collegial manner, based on their respective visits to each of the restaurants over the course of the year,” wrote the Michelin Guide.
The inspectors then rate the food based on a three-star rating scale, unlike the typical five-star ratings. One star means the restaurant is good enough to stop a try it out, two stars mean it’s worth detouring your plans to visit and three stars mean you need to make a special trip to visit the establishment. The stars rate the quality of the cooking.
What does this mean for San Antonio? Well, restaurants that receive even one Michelin Star receive praise, respect, and boomin’ business. Influence of the Michelin Guide can increase business sales by more than 100%, in some instances.
The restaurants reviewed in Texas will be announced later this year. Other cities to be explored will include Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston.
We asked in a Facebook poll which San Antonio restaurants locals wanted to see in the running –
Based on your answers, we created a poll. Which San Antonio restaurant would you like to see receive a Michelin Star?
