PIYAWATTANAVIROJ 1

Poramin Peem Piyawattanaviroj

Ms. Orana Meenongwha

English 10/10:02

May 28, 2018

Michelin Star

Introduction

A simple dish called “​Khai Jiew” ​(omelette) that can be found in every corner of the

street now very famous at “Raan Jay Fai”. Raan Jay Fai is a shop-house restaurant located at

Samran Rat, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok near Pad Thai Pratu Phi. This shop-house restaurant is

owned by a 72-year-old woman named Jay Fai. The restaurant is decorated with common

decorations that can be seen in most street food restaurants. Jay Fai opens from 3pm until 2am.

However, to dine in, customers should book for their seatings before going there because there

are lots of people queuing before the shop opens. Moreover, during afternoon on most day, the

restaurant will hung up a full-house sign which can be implied that there will be no further

customers can be accommodated (Associated Press, 2018). In Jay Fai’s menu, it contains many

ordinary dishes that can be found in many local ​tam sang (stir fries made-to-order) restaurants,

but what surprise is the price of them. There are some arguments about the price of Jay Fai’s

menu, for example 400.- bath for an omelette. Some customers think that it is overrated, since we

could afford these mune with much much lower price (Wattanasukchai, 2018), but many of them

admitted the freshness and the amount of her seafoods in each dishes which could have made the

price this high. In additions, many customers said that this restaurant is worth to wait and worth
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to pay. Despite arguments over the price, Jay Fai restaurant has opened for 40 years, and today

it's even more popular and crowded since the restaurant receives, a hallmark of fine dining,

Michelin Star, that makes the restaurant one of the must-visit tourist spot in Bangkok.

The purpose of this research paper is to introduce the hallmark of fine dining namely

Michelin star.

What is “Michelin Star”?

There are some misunderstanding with some people when they heard the word Michelin

Star. When people heard the word Michelin Star they might think about that tire company which

that is correct. Michelin star is a rating system that was designed by the Michelin brothers, André

and Édouard, who also own that Michelin tire company that is originated from France.

With a concept of inspiring more people to drive on the road, they created the Michelin

guidebook. For the first two years, the first version of the Michelin brothers guidebook had given

out for free. The first Michelin guidebook contained those informations about recommended

hotels, restaurants ,maps etc. that we can find in city of France. Four years later, the brothers

started to publish the next Michelin guidebook about Belgium and consecutively publish the

guidebook about other countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

Inside this guidebook, it contains many useful information for every traveller such as maps,

information on how to fix and change a tire, where to fill up your fuel, and a list of

recommended restaurants and list of recommended hotels in a specific city. These restaurants

were awarded as the Michelin’s fine-dining place.

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So where is the Michelin star? The Michelin star is located within the information of the

recommended restaurants. It signifies that these restaurant have been qualified form the Michelin

requirements. There are levels of Michelin stars, few restaurants got three stars, some got two

stars, and most restaurants got one star. The more stars they got, the more quality they have. To

get a Michelin stars, the inspector will focus on the quality of the food. They will not concentrate

on the restaurant environment or it’s appearance. Therefore, in the next body i will be focusing

more on how to earn the Michelin stars.

How to earn Michelin Star?

To earn a Michelin star there must be some requirements, you do not need to send any

invitations or any forms to the Michelin, but they will come to you. The Michelin will send their

inspector to interesting restaurants anonymously. These Michelin inspector will contain these

values; anonymity, independence, expertise, reliability, passion, and quality. The first value,

Anonymity; They will act like a normal customers so they can ensure that the restaurant will not

give any special treatment. Independence; Although the Michelin inspectors are their employees,

they will have to pay for their own food that the test, so that they can ensure that they will not

receive any special treatment. Expertise; The Michelin inspector have many experiences and

knowledges about food, dining and hotel sectors for many years. Reliability; The result never

came from one inspector, the Michelin will send a collective of inspector who visited the

restaurant for multiple times. So we can assure that they are reliable. Passion; as their inspectors
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have experiences about food, we can imply that these inspector have a passion about what they

are doing, as most of Michelin inspector cooked in kitchen themselves. Quality; as the Michelin

guidebook said “any restaurant can be reviewed for our guides as long as the establishment is

deemed high quality based off the Michelin’s 5 restaurant rating criteria(MICHELIN Guide,

2017).

There are five criteria that the Michelin Inspector uses to rate the restaurant. The

Michelin will only focus on judging the food. They will not include the restaurant interior

decorations or services. They will mainly focus on 1. The quality of the products 2. The mastery

of flavour and cooking techniques 3. The personality of the chef in his cuisine 4. The value of the

money and 5. The consistency between visit (MICHELIN Guide, 2017). Each restaurant will be

scored by using this 5 criteria as the guide for the inspector. There are three rankings of Michelin

stars that the restaurants could receive. To earn three Michelin stars, the cuisine must performed

a marvelous performance. Earning two stars, the cuisine must performed an excellent

performance. Lastly, earning one star, the cuisine must perform the very good performance.

What Michelin Star represents?

Getting the Michelin star can help your restaurant business. The more stars you earned

the more customers may visit your cuisine; as the result, your business will be well-known and

become more stable. Each Michelin star signifies different meaning; if the cuisine has one star, it

means that their restaurant is a great restaurant that offers a high standard dining. If the cuisine
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has two stars, it means that their restaurants has a delicate dishes and outstanding food quality. If

the cuisine has three stars, it means that the restaurants provides uncommon cuisine and dining

experience, which serves a special dishes that are done by using outstanding ingredients (Ewa,

2016).

A restaurant called Jay Fai located in Bangkok, received a star. The owner, Jay Fai, told

the Michelin that she was really surprised after she got the star. Her business have changed after

she receive a star; usually, most if her customers are local people, but after a star entered her

restaurant, flooded of reservation entered her phone call. People and foreigners from different

places are interested to visit this restaurant. In nowadays, people who walk-ins can expect to wait

for four hours or even more. As you can see, this “Jay Fai” restaurant only received a single

Michelin star, but her food-business have changed a lot.

Another restaurant that receive the Michelin star is named Gaggan. This restaurant

received two Michelin stars. The restaurant is owned by a Indian chef named Gaggan Anand,

and the restaurant is located in Bangkok. In this restaurant, they serve an amazing 25 emoji

course tasting menu that customers will not know what it is. In fact, the menu will change every

3 months, but the fan’s favourite dish will be remain on the menu. To dine in, customers should

book for their seatings 1 month ahead. The creativity of their food and menus makes people to be

interested to his restaurant. Moreover, this restaurant have receive many awards and have been

post on many food website. In 2017, this restaurant received the 7th place for the best restaurant

in Asia, and in 2018 they received the 1st place for the best restaurant in Asia ( William Reed

Business Media Ltd., 2018).

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Another restaurant that got the Michelin star is the Eleven Madison Park, owned by Chef

Daniel Humm and Restaurateur Will Guidara. The restaurant is located in the center of New

York City, near the Madison Square Park. This restaurant received three Michelin stars, which is

the highest achievement that Michelin can give. In 2010, this restaurant was ranked to be at the

50th place of the world’s best restaurant; but on 2017, they became the number 1 world’s best

restaurant. This restaurant serves an eleven course menu, which each of the dishes represents the

best dishes in the last eleven years.

Conclusion

To sum up, Michelin star is the awards that were introduced by the Michelin brothers. It

is the awards that will signifies the restaurant that they have high quality of ​fine dining. As the

cuisine must overcome the 5 criteria of the Michelin, the Michelin will secretly send the

inspector to judge the food. Many chefs and cooks aimed this awards to garnish their profile and

increase their food business reputation. It is sometimes challenging to earn this award, some may

have failed to earn it many times. In nowadays, the awards are awarded to most of the world.

Many countries have earned the award, and it changes their food business. For some cuisine,

usually they are famous to local people, but after they receive the star people from around the

places come to visit them. Some cuisine need to form a reservation, some cuisine need to form a

fixed date; so that they could contain their quality. Therefore, to end my research paper, if you

want to search for all the Michelin restaurants, you can visit the Michelin Guide website and

select the region that your are interested to look for; and the website will show all the restaurant

in that region that have earned the Michelin awards.

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References

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Gaggan. (n.d.).

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Gaggan.html

Gaggan – a MICHELIN Guide Restaurant in Bangkok. (n.d.).

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Here's How Michelin Stars Actually Affect the Restaurant Business. (n.d.).

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affect-restaurant-business

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Leisure, T. (2018, April 25). Here's what it actually means when a restaurant gets a Michelin

star.

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restaurant-gets-a-michelin-star-2018-4

Life After a Michelin Star – A Perspective from Bangkok's Top Chefs. (n.d.).

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star-a-perspective-from-bangkok-s-top-chefs-and-the-darling-of-thai-street-food/news

Mathes, E. (2016, August 08). What Is a Michelin Star and How Do You Earn One?

Retrieved from https://www.vitamix.com/us/en_us/what-is-a-michelin-star-and-how-

do-you-earn-one

Michelin Guide. (2018, May 24).

Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide

Michelin Guide Inspectors. (n.d.).

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Michelin Star requirements: How to earn the culinary world's top award. (2017, October 02).

Retrieved from https://www.verdict.co.uk/michelin-star-requirements-how-earn-culinary-

worlds-top-award/

Our Restaurant. (n.d.).

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The Inspection Process. (n.d.).

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Walker, A. W. (2015, December 07). The 10 Most Exclusive Michelin Starred Restaurants In

The World.

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michelin-starred-restaurants-in-the-world/

Q. (2017, December 07). What Does It Take to Earn One, Two, and Three Michelin Stars?

Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/what-does-it-take-to-earn_b_1

895447.html
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What Does Michelin Star Mean? Michelin Star Guide And FAQs. (2017, March 09).

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What It Takes To Become a 1, 2 or 3 Michelin Star Restaurant. (n.d.).

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a-1-2-or-3-michelin-star-restaurant/