Michelin’s new Cantonese food guide: useful or a culinary cash grab?
- Michelin is promoting a new guide that collates restaurants by cuisine
- The Cantonese guide includes restaurants that aren’t even worthy of a Bib Gourmand or a star
I recently met chef Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, who was in Hong Kong to collaborate with Ho Lee Fook’s Jowett Yu. Jew was only in town for a few days, but told me that he would be in Guangzhou, China in November for a Michelin event.
My ears perked up wondering what that was about, as the Michelin group didn’t give any inkling what was happening.
It turns out Jew, whose contemporary Chinese-American restaurant has one Michelin star, was in the southern Chinese city to help Michelin promote a new guide that pulls together the best restaurants in the world by cuisine.
First up: Cantonese cuisine, which originates in southern China.
The event to release The Michelin Guide to Fine Cantonese Food was held in Guangzhou on November 13 – without letting media in Hong Kong know.