What does it take to become a 1, 2 or 3 Michelin Star restaurant in Slovenia?

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The burning question on your plate of how a restaurant gets recognized by the Michelin Guide is a “hot one” among chefs, restaurants and other food inspectors and critics. Is there a secret criteria or is that just a rumor?

First published in 1900 by the Michelin tire company as a guide to help French motorists find lodging on the road, the Michelin Guide is now exclusively devoted to fine dining. Over the decades, the guide has far surpassed its humble origins to become an almost-sacred tome to chefs, foodies, culinary experts and restaurants who regard the guide as the final word in fine dining.

But the question of what does it take to become a Michelin Star restaurant in Slovenia or anywhere else in the world still remains.

Michelin Star Ratings

Michelin Stars are given out on a scale of one to three, and only the top establishments in the world qualify for this designation. Michelin gives out up to three stars, with only the world’s greatest dining establishments attaining that coveted third star. But exactly what does each star mean?

According to the guide, one Michelin star represents a “very good restaurant in its category,” while two stars denote a restaurant boasting “excellent cooking” that is “worth a detour.” Three stars, however, are the ultimate accolade, afforded only to those restaurants that offer “exceptional cuisine” that is “worth a special journey.”

Understandably, there’s a lot of grey areas within those rating descriptions, and the process of receiving stars is meticulous and painstaking, typically taking several years. When a reviewer visits a restaurant for the first time, neither the restaurant’s owner nor chef will have any idea it even happened. If the reviewer loves the place, then another mystery visit will be paid the following year. Assuming the second visit goes as well as the first — preferably better — it’s at this point the reviewer may recommend the restaurant receive its first Michelin star.

For the first time in Slovenia, we will get to receive a Michelin star restaurant(s) on March 18th.

5 Assessment Criteria of Michelin Guide

Michelin remains secretive about the criteria and evaluation process used to award stars, but certain factors are known to be key. The Michelin Guide inspectors have recently outlined the five assessment criteria that both local and international Michelin Guide inspectors have been following for more than a century, and will without a doubt be following in Slovenia. Here are the top five things they look out for while inspecting a restaurant in Slovenia:

Using Quality Products

While using fresh produce is essential, it is not imperative for restaurants to use premium and luxe ingredients, such as truffles, foie gras, and turbot, in order to get the attention of inspectors.

Mastery of Flavor and Cooking Techniques

The Michelin Guide inspectors lookout for the flavors and fit a dish into the various categories based on the flavor: sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, salty and umami. Besides the quality of the food, cooking techniques are truly important. For a Michelin-starred restaurant, there has to be good attention to details down to the kitchen-to-table serving time so that the food does not arrive cold at the table.

The personality of the Chef in the Cuisine

The food should serve as the chef’s interpretation of one’s personality.

Value for Money

Value is having a wow factor. It should include a total experience, from the attentiveness of the service staff and ambiance to food.

Consistency of Food

The main reason behind the uncomfortable exercise of inspectors taking stars away is the lack of food consistency. Michelin Guide inspector points out: “That’s why our inspectors visit a restaurant two or three times, with different inspectors visiting each time, before making a decision. Drawing his experience as a former commis cook, he acknowledges the reality of restaurants having bad days when staff does not show up or suppliers fail to deliver.”

How to Earn a Michelin Star

Although the process is seemingly random from a restaurant’s perspective, there are in fact several steps that can be taken to increase the likelihood of receiving Michelin stars in Slovenia.

Meticulousness
A restaurateur needs to treat every night as if it’s the night of a Michelin inspection, and chefs and staff must be meticulously trained to ensure everyone is working together and on the same page. By ensuring that every diner’s experience on any given night is as exceptional as possible, only then will a restaurant be in the running for a Michelin star.

Train Under Michelin-Starred Chefs
For a chef seeking a Michelin star, it can be beneficial to train under a chef who has already earned one or more. By becoming the protégé of a chef who’s already earned the respect of Michelin, an up-and-comer aspiring toward Michelin stardom can more easily get on Michelin’s radar.

Discipline
It’s been said that cooking is an endless quest for perfection that can never be achieved. Only those with the desire and discipline to be the best will make the cut to become Michelin’s next culinary superstars.

Investment
While it may be tempting to bank a restaurant’s profits, that’s not going to win a Michelin star. The key is to use those profits to further invest in the restaurant to improve the décor, better train staff, source higher-quality ingredients, etc. If a Michelin inspector sees a restaurant, no matter how good, constantly striving to improve instead of simply resting on its laurels, this could make all the difference. It’s not unheard of for a restaurant to spend millions on improvements and then earn the money back (and then some) thanks to the increased revenues that can come from a Michelin star.

Mastery
If you were raised in a kitchen in Spain where you learned the secrets of traditional Basque cuisine at your grandmother’s tutelage, why would you open a sushi restaurant in Tokyo? It makes sense for a chef to cook the type of food he or she is most comfortable with. Only by attaining mastery of a particular cuisine will a chef then be able to push the boundaries and propel it in bold, new directions.

Creativity
Being on the cutting edge of new food trends, with a relentless pursuit of excellence combined with a drive to push the envelope, is a great way to attract Michelin’s attention. The Michelin Guide would have a tough time ignoring an innovative chef whose cuisine is being talked about as the “next big thing” in the food world.

The Finest Ingredients
As any great chef will confirm, ingredients are key. With this in mind, Michelin-starred chefs have been known to personally source unique, hard-to-find ingredients, forging relationships with farmers, artisan bakers, cheese-makers and the like in order to work with the only the best, most unique ingredients possible. Cutting corners is not the way to a Michelin star.

Walk to Canossa
This term refers to King Henry IV humbling himself before the pope and offering penance. It’s also the nickname for the practice (which was apparently quite common up through the 1980s) in which chefs aspiring toward Michelin stardom would journey to Paris in order to meet with the guide’s editors and make a case explaining why their restaurants deserved consideration. Although not as common as it once was, rumor has it this still takes place on occasion.