The renowned Michelin Guide, which rates restaurants and hotels, announced on Wednesday that it is producing its first review of the US West Coast.
Michelin Guide San Francisco and Bay Area 2007 will make its debut in October, representatives said in a ceremony at a downtown plaza.
The guide will cover the San Francisco and San Jose areas as well as the increasingly chic ”Wine Country” of the Sonoma and Napa valleys.
The only other North American city the guide covers is New York, said Jean-Luc Naret, worldwide Michelin Guide director.
”I’m thrilled to be here today for this announcement,” Naret said.
”San Francisco is at the forefront of food trends that are affecting the culinary world at large. We are excited to be here.”
More than 15-million people visit San Francisco annually, making tourism the city’s largest industry, according to Laurie Armstrong of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Restaurants were rated second only to ambience in surveys of what visitors liked best about San Francisco, Armstrong said. The city lays claim to being the birthplace of comestible creations including Cioppino, Crab Louis, the popsicle, and the martini.
The area is unabashed in its love of organic produce, wine, and innovative recipes that blend cultural influences from its diverse population.
”Dissect our dishes, assay our aoli, bite into our burritos, chew our chow fun, delve into our Dungeness, judge our au jus, peruse our pastas … size up our sommeliers, and test our tartares,” Armstrong challenged Naret.
”We can take it.”
Michelin guide inspectors from Europe have been working undercover in the San Francisco area since last year, Naret confided. A new US inspector is being trained in Europe.
”As it has been said, being an inspector is like being in a witness protection programme, only the food is much better of course,” Naret quipped, adding it was imperative that tasters were treated as typical diners or hotel guests.
”We look at all areas of the dish; at the ingredients, the flavours, how it is prepared … The Michelin star in San Francisco should be at the same level as the Michelin star in Paris.”
Inspectors started with a list of 950 restaurants and expected less than a third of those to make it into the San Francisco guide, according to Naret.
Naret declined to give his personal favourite San Francisco restaurant, saying he would reveal it in the guide.
”San Francisco is a natural choice for the guide,” Naret said.
”Just look at the gourmands and gourmets and the importance of food here.
”Our celebrities are not movie stars or rock stars, they are chefs,” said Armstrong.
The Michelin Guide was introduced in New York City last year to a ”fantastic” reception, Naret said.
Michelin will focus on San Francisco this year and ”afterward will launch in many” US cities, with Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and Washington, DC, likely venues, according to Naret, who took over as guide director in 2003. – AFP
