On Dec 3, 8:49 pm, The 2-Belo <the2b...@msd.bigREMOVETHISlobe.ne.jp>
wrote:
> We sadly announce the death of Declan Murphy on Mon, 3 Dec 2007 02:56:03 -0800
> (PST) after being stricken by fj.life.in-japan Disease. The will states:
>
> >I only just noticed the following in an email magazine (economist.com)
>
> >"Michelin launched a guide to Tokyo--its first for an Asian city--on
> >November 19th. Michelin's inspectors (three Europeans and two
> >Japanese) visited 1,500 of the city's approximately 160,000
> >restaurants, awarding them a controversial total of 191 stars--almost
> >as much as Paris, London and New York combined. Eight restaurants were
> >awarded the coveted three-star rating, including Sukiyabashi Jiro, a
> >small, cash-only sushi restaurant in Ginza, with no menu and a toilet
> >shared with neighbouring shops."
>
> >Very classy. I couldn't find a copy of it in the bookshops today
> >though.
>
> They had a special report on this a couple weeks ago on TV. They had vox pops
> from people in Europe saying that the Michelin Guide is "old news", and in fact
> some restaurants have since hidden their rating from the general public because
> of the tremendous pressure put on their staff to live up to the rating.

That seems very unusual. My sister is a chef in Europe and says
competition for "hats" is still very frantic. Not just ratings from
Michelin though.

> Also, there was a curiously large number of restauranteurs who scoffed at
> gaigins rating their food. That the staff actually contained Japanese didn't
> seem to make much difference to them.

Wow - "our French cuisine is so delicately calibrated to those with
different intestinal lengths to the French that no French food critic
could possibly rate our Frenchiness?"