Caterer Middle East recently revealed that Michelin stars could soon be twinkling in Dubai. According to Michael Ellis, international director of Michelin Guides, it could happen sooner than you might expect.
Michelin needs to satisfy three conditions before it launches a new Guide and confers its first stars on a city.
Firstly, a culinary scene; secondly, the business interest of the tyre company; and thirdly, sponsors.
“We certainly have the first two in Dubai, and we’ve had good meetings with Dubai’s Department of Tourism [and Commerce Marketing] and Emirates [airline],” says Michael Ellis, international director of Michelin Guides.
Ellis, on his first visit to the UAE since 1995 for the Global Restaurant Investment Forum 2016, says: “It’s been of great interest for me to come to Dubai. The city has changed enormously since I was last here 20 years ago. It’s now one of the most exciting dining cities in the world.”
Despite the fact that some local industry experts recently pronounced that Dubai is not yet ready for Michelin – at our very own Caterer Middle East Food & Business Conference no less – it appears the guides’ publisher takes a more positive view.
He reveals: “We are looking at Dubai [for a Michelin Guide]. It’s one of the reasons I’m here. Dubai is an emerging market, and we want to see what’s going on. We’re a mirror of what’s happening in the restaurant industry.
“It would be easy to do here, because it’s a relatively small city, and English-speaking,” he tells Caterer Middle East. “So my guess is that it will be sooner rather than later. We could even do it next year, but that would be speculation at the moment."
When challenged about whether Dubai needs a Michelin Guide, Ellis responds: “Arguably there are many places with great food where we’re not present. But in the cities where we’ve gone recently, for example Hong Kong, where we’ve been for eight years, the arrival of the guide and our standards has enabled the culinary scene to set the bar higher.
“We bring our inspectors’ point of view. It’s something for chefs to shoot for. And it gives an international spotlight to the city’s fine-dining scene.”
Michelin is launching new guides in four cities this year: Singapore; Seoul in South Korea; and two as-yet-unnamed places in the US. “We’ve been brought to these cities by governments, tourist boards and local industry. We don’t go anywhere without financial partners,” says Ellis.
On the subject of Michelin’s business interests in Dubai – its main activity being tyres – Ellis remarks that the company already has a presence in the Emirate, as the headquarters for its Africa-India-Middle East (AIM) region is based in the Jebel Ali Free Zone.
| Advertisement |
The Michelin Guides were first published at the beginning of the 20th century to encourage car owners to drive, and therefore to consume more tyres. As well as useful information for motorists, including maps, instructions for repairing and changing tires, and lists of car mechanics, hotels and petrol stations, they evolved to include restaurant recommendations and, from 1931, the now-famous star categorisations, which were based on the following descriptions:
One star: "A very good restaurant in its category"
Two star: "Excellent cooking, worth a detour"
Three star: "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey"
Detours and special journeys to Michelin-starred establishments these days are often more than a car ride – with gastronomists flying around the world to sample to their menus.
But Ellis says that the principles of those original star ratings remain true to this day. His inspectors consider five criteria when judging a restaurant:
1) Quality of ingredients
2) Skill in the preparation
3) Combinations of flavours
4) Value for money
5) Consistency of culinary standards (over time and throughout the menu)
Article continues on next page...
Search our database of more than 2,700 industry companies
