As the Michelin Guide gains prominence in Toronto and Canada, every acknowledgment, whether it’s a star, Bib Gourmand, or recognition, holds considerable weight for local businesses. Yet, paradoxically, the Guide’s influence in attracting customers may also deter some from visiting a restaurant.
This raises the intriguing question: what if a restaurant were to lose its star?
Anonymous inspectors evaluate five criteria when ranking a restaurant: quality ingredients, mastery of flavour and technique, chef’s personality in cuisine, value for money and consistency. Consistency, the last criterion, is crucial for a restaurant to retain its star — a factor highly sought after by Toronto’s chefs.
Inspectors, before collectively evaluating a restaurant’s star potential, individually visit to ensure consistent experiences are replicated time and again.
Over the two years since the Guide’s introduction to Toronto, none of the initially awarded restaurants have faced the crushing disappointment of losing their recognition.
“It’s all about upholding consistency and ensuring every dish remains delicious,” says Anthony Rose, the chef and owner of Bib Gourmand recipient Fat Pasha. “There was a brief period where we kept reminding ourselves that we’re a Michelin Bib Gourmand. We had to keep evolving, constantly pushing the envelope, and maintaining our high standards.”
Since the Michelin Guide began in 1900, they have been rolled out globally, showcasing examples of the toll losing an accolade takes on chefs. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay famously confessed on a Norwegian talk show that he “cried” when losing stars, likening it to “losing a girlfriend.”
Michelin directors, recognizing the toll on mental health, approached the demotion of French chefs Christopher Coutanceau and Guy Savoy with sensitivity this year. The decision was influenced by the tragic suicides of chefs Benoit Violier and Bernard Loiseau, highlighting the stress in the culinary world and the pursuit of retaining stars.
With the Michelin Guide now in Toronto’s spotlight, are chefs in the city beginning to feel the heat in the kitchen?
“That’s definitely common to see in France just because it existed for so long,” says Rose. “It’s that overall anxiety of maintaining one, two or three stars and it really puts a strain on the staff and the owners.”
Rose says that receiving the Bib Gourmand award doubled business at Fat Pasha, especially as the restaurant emerged from the pandemic. This success prompted him to consider the significance of the new accolade and understand customer expectations.
However, Rose clarifies that at Fat Pasha, they “don’t want to play that game,” alluding to the high-stakes atmosphere prevalent in European kitchens.
“We just want to serve good food and want people to have a good time,” he says. “We just doubled down on what we’re known for and kept the menu extremely simple and doable and what we do now is just concentrate on quality and consistency.”
While a mention in the Michelin Guide can boost a restaurant’s business, being removed from it can also impact the establishment, especially for those with stars. Each star signifies a level of recommendation — two stars indicate the restaurant is “worth a detour,” and three stars mean it’s “worth a special journey.” Losing even a single star can not only affect a chef’s reputation but also impact the overall business.
At Enigma Yorkville, which earned a star in the inaugural guide and retained it this year, bookings saw an immediate surge of 50 per cent and have maintained a 40 to 50 percent increase ever since.
Chef patron Quinton Bennett says that the Michelin Guide was one of the driving factors behind opening the restaurant in 2019. Upon hearing rumors of the Guide coming to Toronto, he was determined to earn a star or two.
“Michelin is an international thing. It’s not just one city. It’s macro.” he says, acknowledging its effect on multiple industries. “The impact it will have on the city, bringing in tourism, pushing the scales, it’s huge.”
Before making the move to Toronto with the goal of opening Enigma, Bennett had experience working in multi-starred restaurants in the UK and Copenhagen. He was well-acquainted — and at ease — with the kind of environment and pressure he anticipated would come with earning a star.
“It depends on the business. Not everyone wants to do it and that’s fine,” he says, acknowledging that Enigma is always striving for a second star. “This is what we choose. We want to be the professionals of our game. We want to be top of the charts. We put lots of hard work and energy and sacrifice into this industry, so why would we want to settle for less?”
Mexican eatery Campechano is another restaurant with a Bib Gourmand award given in 2022 and again in 2023. Despite the potential damage that might come with losing this recognition, owner Daniel Roe explains that he was “quite confident” before the release of the updated guide this year. Mexican eatery
“Through the year, you always have off days in which you hope that no reviewer was here, so there’s always that nervousness,” says Roe. “But we had a great year, and we significantly improved the quality of our food, so I was quite confident.”
He explains that in the kitchen there hasn’t been added pressure, but rather excitement and eagerness to continue to strive to be recognized again.
“Everyone just takes that much extra pride,” says Roe. “It’s just really exciting, and for [the staff], it’s just really exciting to be working in a place that was recognized.”
Bennett echoes a similar sentiment, noting that although he doesn’t spend every day nervous about inspectors, he can’t deny the nerves that precede each release. He confesses that he would be “disappointed” or “feel like a failure” if Enigma were ever to lose its star.
“I’d probably be feeling 20 different emotions at the same time,” he says. “There will be a lot of anger and resentment, then acceptance and figuring out what we’re going to do about it.”
But, he says, should Enigma lose their star, the restaurant would still be successful, because they don’t rely solely on the Guide’s influence.
“That’s our standard and that’s what we go for. But we were still successful without it,” he says. “We know we’ve done a great job this year. I won’t take it out on anybody or be angry with myself. I’ll review it and I’ll say, ‘OK, where did we go wrong and how do we get better?’”
While the chefs acknowledge the guide’s value and its implications for both business and the city, their primary focus remains on maintaining consistency to ensure customer satisfaction.
“We love where we are within that whole scope of Michelin,” says Rose. “But we want to stay true to ourselves.”
However, it’s undeniable that they aspire to continue reaching for those accolades themselves.
“The standard was always set and if you set your standard high, you don’t need to be worrying about it because that’s just your standard,” adds Bennett. “We don’t want one. We want two. We have higher aspirations. But it depends on the person. If this is the world that you’ve been in and you’ve been doing it for so long, it’s just your job. It’s just what you do. You live and breathe it. You just have that standard, and you just keep going.”