Originally posted in GK's From the Web section: en.kunming.cn/index/content/2013-06/20/content_3334764.htm
Pretty amusing as, to my understanding, you can't simply build a Michelin starred restaurant. Maybe a flow chart will be of use:
Open restaurant->Get visited by Michelin reviewers->Either get star or don't.
I think all you need to get started is a Michelin starred chef. Market this.
The rest is down to semantics, and money. I have been to one place that spent 10 000 000 decorating one floor. These spenders can afford a Michelin chef.
I have had really good food of that style in Kunming, in a 'private restaurant' paid for by a big business guy entertaining local government. I was a tag along. The bill was never seen.
A Michelin place will not be for the average middle class diner. It is for the guys who pay 10 000 for a bottle of vino, and 100 000 for a meal. They are out there.
Pretty sure it's not actually down to semantics. Chefs who have received 1 or even 2 Michelin stars for one restaurant they opened may not have any for another.
Dan's flowchart is right, it all comes down to the decor, the menu, the service etc. and this is just another case of people trying to buy a name. Maybe it will be that good, but having "at least one Michelin twp-star chef" doesn't mean it will be. The chef may have little control over certain important issues essential to running a restaurant to those standards (I'm definitely thinking staff here, but also maybe ingredients and possibly even the menu).
And of course, once the European management leaves after a year or two it's anybody's guess what happens to the quality...
I don't understand where this story is coming from. The building plans for the castle have been cancelled because they didn't get approval to build it. Anyway the place is still a swamp and even with approval it would take years to build. So don't hold your breath.
By matter of semantics, I meant in the marketing.
You market it as a restaurant that will have a michelin chef. You still have to do all the decor and investment. You do not actually say it is a michelin restaurant. Semantics.
You then start the approval process.
If in the meantime OTHERS (press/public) refer to it as a Michelin Restaurant, then the marketing has worked, but you have not misrepresented.
"If in the meantime OTHERS (press/public) refer to it as a Michelin Restaurant, then the marketing has worked,"
Yeah, that's exactly why I thought this was amusing. The "journalist" didn't have even the vaguest grasp of the facts.
"And of course, once the European management leaves after a year or two it's anybody's guess what happens to the quality..."
Who says the European management has to leave after a year or two? I know of a number of western managed restaurants/bars in Kunming alone and their owners/managers are still in Kunming after many years and wouldn't want that to change.
Because someone operating a business of the Michelin kind will quickly get fed up with how this city feels.
hahahaha, knowing how the average kitchen looks here, they'd need a team of 20 cleaners working around the clock without lunch breaks to keep that one star :)
