To earn one Michelin star, a restaurant needs to be “a very good restaurant in this category”. For two stars, it needs to be “excellent cooking, worth a detour”. For three stars, a restaurant must serve “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.”
Holding three Michelin stars is a rare honour few restaurants have achieved, with 137 restaurants from around the world making the prestigious list in 2022.
What do Michelin stars mean? Restaurants can earn a maximum of three stars (as well as some additional awards, but more on that later).
Perhaps disappointingly, the answer is no - three is still the maximum number of Michelin stars that can be awarded to any one restaurant.
With one, two, or up to three stars to gain, a restaurant can obtain various levels of prestige. Restaurants and chefs will consider the acquiring (and losing) of stars as defining moments of their careers.
In 1994, a 32-year-old Marco Pierre White became the youngest chef to achieve three stars at his eponymous restaurant. By 1999, he'd renounced the stars, quitting the restaurant that had made him a culinary star.
Gordon Ramsay: 17 Michelin Stars
Yet despite his large and sometimes hotheaded personality, Ramsay has the Michelin stars to prove his talent as a chef. Ramsay is associated with seven current Michelin Stars, but throughout his career his restaurants have earned a total of 17 stars.
The guide is updated annually, and while restaurants can lose their stars if they close during the year of assessment, they will not lose the stars if the head chef leaves, even if it's just after a new guide has been released, as long is there is continuity of culinary quality.
Yes, a restaurant can lose its Michelin Star(s).
The Stars are awarded every year based on certain criteria. If the criteria are not met, the restaurant can lose the Star or the Stars they have been awarded previously. This can even happen to the top 25 Michelin Star restaurants.
All about Michelin Star Chefs? First, there are about 2500 restaurants awarded of 1 Michelin Star in the world, 500 restaurants with 2 Michelin Stars and around 150 awarded 3 Michelin Stars. Secondly, this evolves every year based on the release of the guide in every part of the world.
3 Stars MICHELIN : 1-20 of 29 restaurants.
In total, the 2023 MICHELIN Guide France restaurant selection includes 630 MICHELIN-Star Restaurants: 29 Three MICHELIN Star restaurants, 75 Two MICHELIN Star restaurants, and 526 One MICHELIN Star restaurants throughout France.
They are Alain Roux, Heston Blumenthal, Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Gagnaire, Clare Smyth, Hélène Darroze and Alain Ducasse.
As of the 2022 Michelin Guide, there are 14 restaurants in the US with a rating of 3 Michelin stars.
The oldest 3 Michelin stars
Kicking off the list is the stalwart of nouvelle cuisine, the legendary L'Auberge du Pont de Collonges, or, Paul Bocuse Restaurant. This Lyonnaise institution has retained its 3 Michelin Star rating since 1965, an honor few chefs could ever even dream of achieving.
French chef Guy Savoy's Paris restaurant maintained its three-star Michelin status for two decades. Guy Savoy, who has been praised as the world's best chef, has lost one of his Michelin stars.
Anonymity: Although our inspectors are employees of Michelin, they're above all customers first - just like you. Testing restaurants in complete anonymity in order to ensure that they do not receive any special treatment is essential to the creditability of the MICHELIN Guide.
Often regarded as the best chef in the world, Guy Savoy's Paris restaurant was stripped off a star by the Michelin Guide recently.
One star: A very good restaurant in its category. Two stars: Excellent cooking, worth a detour. Three stars: Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.
Why did acclaimed chef and restaurateur Gordan Ramsey lose his Michelin stars? Distractify explained the reason for the loss of stars in a quote from Michael Ellis, Michelin's Guide Director: "We've had issues with consistency, and consistency is a huge thing for us."
But the fact of the matter is that they don't exist: stars are awarded to the restaurant, not the chef. Gordon Ramsey holds no Michelin stars. Restaurant Gordon Ramsey holds three. The reasoning is pretty obvious: different chefs cook at the same restaurant.
However, Jamie doesn't really have one signature dish. Instead he wrote many cookbooks with memorable, easy food. How many Michelin stars does Jamie Oliver have? Jamie Oliver still hasn't received any Michelin Star.
There are Michelin-starred chefs, and then there's Alain Ducasse. As well as being the first chef to own three restaurants with three Michelin Stars (the institute's highest rating) each, Ducasse is one of just two chefs in the world to be awarded over 20 stars altogether.