They’ve been in town for weeks—perhaps months—already. Next time you’re in one of Dallas’ destination restaurants, whether a high-end celebration dinner or a great barbecue pit, look closely at the guests around you. One of them may be an inspector for the Michelin Guide.
Michelin stars are coming to Texas restaurants. The stars, considered the most prestigious awards in the restaurant world, started as printed food recommendations for Michelin tire customers in France in 1926, and have now transformed into a global mark of quality, a huge tourism-driven business, and, of course, a source of controversy.
Michelin’s recent expansion into American cities has been driven by financial partnerships with local and state tourism boards, and Texas is now part of that trend. Travel Texas and the local tourism boards of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and Fort Worth banded together to cover the costs of a Texas Michelin Guide. Financial terms are not yet disclosed, although the Miami Herald once did the math for Florida. It found that three years of guides cost participating cities and the state $1.5 million. It stands to reason that the larger Texas cities would spend a bit more.
Guide inspectors are already visiting those five cities. The first Texas guide, including the first set of starred Texas restaurants, will be announced by the end of 2024. Michelin has a three-year guide commitment in the five cities. (Update, 11 a.m.: In a follow-up message, a Michelin representative clarified that the Guide will cover those five major cities and “close surrounding areas.” However, those surroundings are tightly defined. Collin County is “outside the selection scope” for Dallas ratings.)
“The Michelin Guide Texas will illustrate to global travelers the culinary journey that’s waiting to be discovered in our state, featuring restaurants that embody our heritage and introducing innovative chefs and local artisans who are redefining our food scene,” Tim Fennell, director of Travel Texas, said in a press release this morning. “The introduction of the Guide will be a tremendous asset for Texas, promoting our rich and diverse food culture and elevating the restaurant scene to an international stage.”
The benefits are numerous. Food tourism is a growing economic force, and both recreational and business travelers seek out Michelin-starred restaurants on their trips. Michelin can act as a talent magnet for ambitious young cooks, too.
“The Michelin Guide is the gold standard in culinary tourism, and this is a wonderful opportunity to share with our visitors the Dallas story of today, highlight our diverse culinary offerings, and showcase our talented chefs,” Craig Davis, president and CEO of Visit Dallas, said in a separate press release. “We are honored to help position Texas as a global dining destination alongside our partner cities in Austin, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.”
Although several Dallas restaurant leaders—and this author—foresee a bumpy beginning for the city, including probably fewer stars than we expect, those leaders also expect the result to be a better food scene from top to bottom.
“This is the little push that we need,” says Regino Rojas, whose Purépecha tasting menu we rank as Dallas’ best meal and who has traveled across Europe to visit Michelin-starred restaurants. “It’s going to be a rough start, but what’s coming after should be a lot better quality, a lot more focus on the cuisine—everything else that’s involved [in a meal] besides Instagram.”
The Guide is notorious for its high standards, preference for expensive food, inscrutable decisions, classical French origin, and encouragement of a generic global fine-dining format over individuality. But Michelin also says it wants to focus on barbecue and Tex-Mex.
Gwendal Poullenec, international director of Michelin Guides, cites Texas’ diverse foods in the press release, specifically praising the state’s “farm-to-table dishes, fusion cuisine, upscale dining and the famous Texas-style barbecue. Texas is a perfect fit for the Michelin Guide, based on the experiences of our anonymous Inspectors.”
Even many of the possible drawbacks of a Michelin Guide in Texas are actually benefits, if you look at them from a certain angle. They’ll favor higher-end dining—but encourage better culinary technique that cooks can take with them to more casual jobs. They’ll generate loads of controversy—but controversy means passionate people talking about Texas dining culture.
“It’s going to be so much controversy,” Rojas says. “Are you kidding me? It’s going to be crazy. It’s going to get people more into it. The city’s going to engage a little more.”
One problem with the Michelin Guide is that the Guide’s standards for dining etiquette and style are very different from the way Texans eat. This is not a commentary on the food itself—though Michelin’s California guide is shockingly light on Mexican food—but rather the way Texans like to eat it.
“I’m curious to see how they’re going to treat the steakhouses,” Rojas says. “[Local steakhouses] have their own protocol. They don’t follow any French protocols or anything.”
Not everyone expects a culture clash, however. “At the end of the day, Austin is still going to be Austin in what they do,” says Bruno Davaillon, who led the Alain Ducasse-owned, one-Michelin-starred restaurant Mix in Las Vegas before moving to Dallas. “I’m not sure it’s going to change the dynamics of the restaurants here.”
Davaillon is more cautious on the economic benefits that Michelin stars might bring to individual restaurants, having run one himself. But he’s not a total skeptic. “In order for Dallas to take the next step, there is a level in the middle where a lot of customers and restaurateurs are content. If Michelin coming is going to help push a little more as far as bringing something new, excitement, people trying new things—for sure [that would be good].”
Toby Archibald, chef-owner of Quarter Acre, believes the news will help Texas attract culinary talent. “If you ask chefs, restaurant owners, what’s the hardest thing about this business? Everyone will say staffing and talent. [Talented young cooks] leave to New York or Chicago, now Florida. Michelin will change that.” Archibald himself moved to London as a young cook, ate at every Michelin-starred restaurant he could, and applied to jobs at all the ones he liked.
“It’s life-changing,” he says of working at a restaurant that gains a star.
Below, we have assembled answers to some frequently-asked questions about the Michelin Guide.
What are Michelin stars, anyway?
The Michelin Guide—an international organization based in France—rates restaurants on a scale of one to three stars. One is “High-quality cooking, worth a stop,” two is “Excellent cooking, worth a detour,” and three is “Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” The Bib Gourmand award honors “Exceptionally good food at moderate prices,” while a green star honors sustainability. Restaurants can hold both green and regular stars at the same time.
So pretty much every good restaurant gets a star?
Nope. The truth is much more complicated. My neighborhood has a couple taquerías that offer “high-quality cooking” that is “worth a stop,” but Michelin means something more rarified. Even one star denotes one of the very best restaurants in its market. Two stars indicates a degree of formality to the service, usually including a chef’s tasting menu and wine pairings. Three-star meals can cost $300 or more and involve elaborate cooking technique and unusually attentive service.
“The fancier [Dallas restaurants], they’re going to realize that they’re not that fancy,” Rojas says of two- and three-star recognitions. “They need to fancy their ass off if they want to be in that league.”
Is a three-star restaurant necessarily the best?
That’s a matter of taste. Some of my favorite meals in Michelin cities have been at one-starred restaurants. Three-star restaurants tend to have very formal, many-coursed tasting menus at high prices, often serving food that prizes extremely sophisticated technique over soulfulness or personal expression. Texas is very unlikely to boast a three-star restaurant.
Which chefs are Michelin-starred?
Trick question. None are! Ever. There is no such thing as a “Michelin-starred chef.” Michelin stars are awarded to the restaurants.
Are stars forever?
They are awarded annually and can be lost if the restaurant’s quality declines. Judges visit restaurants frequently to check on consistency. Michelin can also stop covering a region, as it did with Las Vegas in 2009. Texas is signed up for three years of starred guides.
Who are the judges?
Michelin’s judges are full-time employees who formerly worked in the restaurant business. They cover all regions across the globe—so, for example, Michelin will not just hire Texans to cover Texas. In this way, theoretically Texas will be held to the same standard as the other regions Michelin surveys, though that is not always evident in reality.
Judges are anonymous and their identities are closely guarded.
Why does Texas have to pay to get a Michelin Guide?
Michelin Guides were originally a side business to the tire company. The idea was that if you were a driver in France, you might appreciate a guidebook to help plan your next road trip. As the Guides have gone global, they’ve started to evolve into a business in their own right. Michelin has recently started charging Eastern European countries like Czechia for Guides that it used to publish for free.
The idea is that local tourism boards provide financial assistance as an investment in cultural tourism, Michelin produces an honest guide free of meddling, and the chosen restaurants benefit—along with the region’s entire culinary scene.
Does this guarantee that all five of the big Texas cities get stars?
No. Judges visiting a city are under no obligation to award any stars.
Will this change how Dallas restaurants operate?
Maybe. Many people I’ve spoken with in the industry are excited for a greater degree of accountability in quality; others are worried that service standards may stiffen. Many also feel that Dallas will change little at all.
“The people that it really changes how they do their restaurant are the ones who really want that second star,” Archibald says. This is because the second and third stars unofficially require greater degrees of formality. “You’ve got to do a tasting menu, you’ve got to limit how many covers you’re doing.” A chef once told the New York Times that to gain more stars, you need to pay for more labor for “tweezer work.”
What’s in this for Michelin?
Brand recognition. Davaillon, who grew up with Michelin Guides in France, has watched the company try to build that same exalted reputation in new markets around the world. “They are pushing hard to get more exposure,” he says. “They had a hard time to develop themselves outside of France for the longest time.”
So five Texas cities paid up. What about the rest of Texas?
That’s not certain, but don’t count on suburbs getting stars. Dallas and Fort Worth are participating, but cities like Plano are not. In Colorado, a suburban restaurant learned the hard way that Michelin inspectors had stuck within Denver city limits.
What about casual restaurants? Will we see Michelin-starred barbecue?
Probably! Michelin says they intend to feature barbecue and Tex-Mex. But what barbecue expertise the judges have, and what they’ll like best, is anybody’s guess.
Which places in Dallas are going to get stars?
Nobody knows. The judges are visiting restaurants now, and criteria are so opaque that anything could happen.
“I’m curious to see who they’re going to reward,” Davaillon says. “I have a little idea but it’s a guessing game.”
This article was updated at 8:35 a.m. with additional comment from Visit Dallas, and at 10:30 a.m. with a correction on the partners with whom Michelin made its three-year commitment in Texas.
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