Remember those gold stars you’d get in elementary school when you did exceptionally well on an activity? Well, the culinary world’s version of that is the Michelin Star. Yes, the same Michelin that sells tires awards the coveted honour for fine dining quality to restaurants around the world. Michelin has been handing its stars out since 1900 and the reviewers are completely anonymous. TripSavvy.com breaks down the three possible ratings a restaurant can receive. One star means a restaurant is a good place to stop on your journey, offering cuisine prepared to a consistently high standard. Two stars means a restaurant is worth a detour, indicating excellent cuisine and skillfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. Getting a three-star rating is very, very rare. It means a restaurant is worth a special journey, indicating exceptional cuisine where diners eat extremely well. Distinctive dishes are precisely executed, using unbeatable ingredients.
Here’s some of the restaurants that achieved a three-star rating in 2018.
Ultraviolet in Shanghai, China: Opened in 2012 by French chef Paul Pairet and the VOL Group, Ultraviolet is a single-table restaurant, meaning it seats just one party of 10 each night. You get a lot more than just a 20-plus course dinner though — with cuisine drawing from Chef Pairet’s French background and his experience working in Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney, Jakarta and Istanbul — because this is the first restaurant in the world to be billed as multi-sensory. Décor, paintings, artifacts or views are replaced with a purpose-built room that has high-end technology, dry scent projectors, stage and UV lighting, and a 360-degree projection, table projectors, beam speakers and a multichannel speaker system. Each dinner course is dressed-up by lights, sounds, music, and/or scents, and enhanced with its own tailored atmosphere to provide context for the dish’s taste.
ABaC in Barcelona, Spain: Quite a different experience than Ultraviolet, ABaC is located in a hotel of the same name. Chef Jordi Cruz — who heads the restaurant and became only the second 24-year-old chef in the world to receive a Michelin star when he was awarded his first in 2004 — is big on creativity and innovation without pretension. He serves up a menu inspired by tradition, modernity and product. You’ll find really diverse dishes on his menu, among which are roasted pig’s cheek, with dried pumpkin, citronella and species; and a tuna rice, Mediterranean tomato stew, tuna belly and Roman Pecorino. ABaC’s dining room is divided among several spaces on the ground level of the hotel, facing a small garden and terrace. It’s a bright space during the day with sunlight coming in through glass walls that becomes dimmed during the night.
Iida in Kyoto, Japan: Tucked away on a quiet side street in Kyoto, you’ll find Iida. Headed by Chef Shinichi Iida, who’s been cooking here since 2010, the restaurant often serves its food on antiques and items from famous artists. It isn’t uncommon to have your dish served in a 180-year-old bowl or on a 400-year-old plate. Counter seating hosts six people and there is also a private dining room. Meals are known for their daintiness, with the chef paying special attention the foods he selects, how he cooks and how he serves. On the menu you’ll find traditional Japanese offerings but what’s interesting is that the menu changes monthly.
If you also have an interest in travel and food, you should consider Centennial College’s Food Tourism program. This School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Arts program focuses on preparing students to develop successful food tourism enterprises and gain employment in existing food and culinary tourism agencies and companies, while advocating for social justice, equity and access in communities. It also looks at the connections between experience, gastronomy, wine, culture, food traditions and communities.
By Izabela Szydlo