Michelin stars - whose are they?

[Feelingstrange2]

Watching the Great British Menu last night and some of the chefs are "Michelin Starred" and others aren't. However at least one (I think) has been a Head Chef at a starred restaurant in the past although isnt working there now. This got me thinking who actually "gets" the accolade. Who is it that can actually say "Oh I have x Michelin Stars"?

I assumed it was the restaurant that had the stars rather than the person.

restaurant

Restaurant so if chefs own / run more than 1 restaurant that's how they end up with eg 9 stars.

Ahh, OK. So the most any one restaurant can have is 1 star.

No, a restaurant can have 1,2 or 3 stars.

A restaurant can get up to 3 stars. If a restaurant wins a star, then the head chef at the time would be considered ‘a Michelin starred chef’, but it is the restaurant that wins the star.

Simon Rogan runs l’Enclume, which has three stars. He designs the menus and gives the restaurant its vibe. If he left and started somewhere new that restaurant wouldn’t have stars, but as it was Rogan in charge that earned the three stars, he’d be considered a three star chef.

Do they go back and sometimes take stars away?

Im fairly sure the restaurant would retain the stars until the next inspection/award.

Yes, a restaurant can lose its stars.

Thanks everyone! Really interesting.

Not that I've ever eaten at one! I think we've got a bib gourmand close by but only Michelins in the vicinity are on the corners of our cars!

I meant the new restaurant wouldn’t get three stars just cos he was a three star chef - the original one keeps them. Badly worded!

Ah ok yes, sorry I misread!

exactly but the new restaurant could say

“with 3 michelin star awarded chef”

They can’t actually, because the chef is never awarded starts. It’s the restaurant and ALL the staff as a whole.

They can say he used to work for the Ledbury say, but no chef is Michelin star awarded chef.

but they do.

All the time!

https://www.escoffier.edu/blog/world-food-drink/which-chefs-have-earned-the-most-michelin-stars/

Yes they do. The star is awarded based on the restaurant experience in its entirety, not just the food, hence it not just being the chef who is awarded the stars. But the phrase ‘Michelin starred chef’ is often used.

There is one not far from us and they get assesed every year and told if they have retained their star that year.

Michelins starred chef is used by the media, but a chef won’t refer to themselves as Michelin starred unless they currently work either in a starred restaurant or are part of a group that holds stars.

The media do often, but chefs never do! Because they don’t hold the stars.

It’s the restaurant, but yes on Great British Menu they say it’s the chefs, all the time!

Just to complicate further, the head chef in a restaurant is quite often not THE chef. The head chef is responsible for the running of the kitchen and will be really good themselves - often going on to set up their own restaurant and win their own awards (and they pop up on GBM all the time) but they are working to the owner, so for example we’ve seen Simon Rogan’s head chef on there in the past - but if you were going to say which chef holds the stars it would be Rogan and not the head chef.

Also to keep in mind it's not just the food but also the wine card. Which is expensive to maintain and has led done restaurants to consciously downgrade as it made more commercial sense.

Michelin star guide Info

they most certainly do if they decide to start up a new restaurant themselves