F&W Best New Chefs React to the Michelin Guide Heading to Texas

The Michelin Guide announced this week that it will release a Texas restaurant guide to Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio later this year, marking the 11th region the guide covers in North America. Anonymous inspectors are already roaming the state, determining whether restaurants are worthy of recognition. And while we wait for the stars (or, perhaps, lack thereof) to be announced, let’s consider their potential impact. 

Here is where I put on my giant sparkly cowboy hat and get all everything’s-bigger-in-Texas on you. Put bluntly: What good is a Michelin Guide to diners in Texas? What kind of impact will the Michelin Guide have on restaurants in Texas? What would a Michelin-starred barbecue restaurant even look like? I reached out to a bunch of Texas-based Food & Wine Best New Chefs to find out.

Butts in seats

The big promise of the Michelin Guide is that it draws tourists to restaurants. Indeed, the guide bases its star ratings on “worth a stop” (one star), “worth a detour” (two), and “worth a special journey” (three). Tourism is baked into the program. The press release announcing the Texas guide even highlights Travel Texas as a partner. I’m not sure Texas lacks for tourists, as anyone who has waited in line for barbecue on a muggy Saturday, navigated around the hoards of people remembering the Alamo, or witnessed stumbly bachelorette parties on South Congress in Austin can tell you. That said, the guide could bring a new category of tourist to town. Michelin could mean “casting a wider net,” namely for folks who build travel around dining, says 2021 F&W Best New Chef Fermín Núñez of Suerte in Austin.

Additionally, restaurants everywhere are struggling right now, thanks to the lingering impact of the pandemic and increased food costs, among other reasons. “This type of recognition will be a huge boost to the restaurants that have survived and continue to hold high standards for food, service, creativity, and sustainability,” says 2017 F&W Best New Chef Rico Torres of Mixtli in San Antonio. The impact could potentially be huge: A spokesperson for Discover Atlanta, the organization that helped bring the Michelin Guide to that city last year, claims that the city’s five one-star restaurants enjoyed an increase in business of about 30%.

The prestige

While Texas chefs are not hurting for accolades — they have their own category in the James Beard Awards, after all, not to mention honors like the Texas Monthly Top 50 Barbecue list — another spotlight is always welcome. And a few stars could put Texas on the world stage. “We are just beginning to be taken seriously by the coasts and Europe,” says 2016 F&W Best New Chef Kevin Fink of Austin and San Antonio, and being Michelin-rated can only help. 2017 F&W Best New Chef Diego Galicia, of the Mexican tasting menu restaurant Mixtli in San Antonio, says he’s eager to “see where we line up compared to our colleagues in Europe and Asia.” After all, you can’t compare apples to oranges, but you can compare stars to stars.

A draw for talent

The Michelin Guide can attract talented chefs and hospitality workers to a region. “More talent will come because of this,” says 2023 F&W Best New Chef Emmanuel Chavez of Tatemó in Houston. “And more talent will stay as well.” One reason is that ambitious early-career chefs might prefer to work in Michelin-starred kitchens. ”When I was starting to cook,” says Núñez, “I always looked up to people who were recognized by the Michelin Guide in cities like New York and Chicago,” and that he would have loved an opportunity to work in such a kitchen.

Galicia adds that before the announcement, “If I wanted to chase a star, I’d have to move to a market that had the guide.” Sound a bit extreme? It’s been done before: In 2018, Austin chef Otto Phan told Eater that he moved to Chicago at least in part because the guide covered that city. (Galicia adds, “It’s … awesome I 1721412064 get to aim for stars in my own city.”)

Stars for barbecue?

While the Michelin Guide tends to favor fine-dining restaurants, it also offers the Bib Gourmand recognition to more casual establishments. But after Gwendal Poullennec, International Director of the Michelin Guides, said in a press release that Michelin inspectors will consider “the famous Texas-style barbecue” for the guide, I have to ask: What would a starred barbecue joint even look like? White tablecloths? Air conditioned areas to wait in line? Lengthy wine lists? Dare I say — gasp — reservations? 

One thing is for sure: Chefs think the signature smoked meats of Texas are star-worthy. “We’re home to some of the most outstanding barbecue restaurants in the country,” says Torres. “And true connoisseurs know that behind the smoke, barbecue is a fickle and difficult craft to master.” And Fink notes that this level of skill is certainly “aligned to Michelin values.”

One little hitch: The Michelin guide doesn’t technically cover all of Texas, and many of our best smokehouses are in small towns, not big cities. The guide specifically covers Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and “close surrounding areas,” per D Magazine. Is Lexington, Texas’ world famous Snow’s BBQ close enough to Austin to warrant a nod? We’ll find out!

Cooking to the guide

“Cooking to the guide” is a syndrome known to chefs and fine dining aficionados who travel in the Michelin Guide’s orbit. You have perhaps experienced this if you’ve ever been to a one- or two- Michelin-starred restaurant and left feeling underwhelmed, like you could have had that meal at any restaurant, anywhere. Chances are? The kitchen is gunning for its next star, trying to guess what the inspectors are looking for based on other restaurants that already have that number of stars, and losing a bit of themselves in the process. “My biggest fear is that people will cook for stars, not from their heart,” says 2013 F&W Best New Chef Chris Shepherd.

A unique dining scene

I admit, there is something about the kinds of restaurants the Michelin Guide prefers that feels a bit…un-Texan to me. Their anonymous critics love stuffy tasting menus; we stand in lines to order tacos or meat by the pound. They love polished, formal service; we adore big toothy grins and a casual “Y’all know what you’d like to order?” And while the state has no shortage of the fine-dining restaurants that the Michelin Guide might favor, often these menus in Texas have a sense of humor or playfulness to them. Perhaps because of a lack of a presence like Michelin, our high-end restaurants sometimes take more risks. We put a Texas twang on everything, from pasta to sushi to the French classics that Michelin loves, and cook our homegrown favorites in new and inventive ways. 

“We don’t expect them to get it right away,” says Chavez, referencing Houston, but the same could be said of all of Texas. Shepherd agrees: “I think this will be great when the list does come out,” he says. “To see what voters are looking for. Because right now, it seems like it could be all over the board.” That said, Michelin does have a history of adapting their criteria to fit regional customs. In their first-ever guide to Mexico, the inspectors awarded one star to the tiny, casual Taquería el Califa de León. And, as discussed, we know they’re open to including barbecue in the guide. But will they, you know, get Texas?

Don’t mess with Texas

“What has made the Texas food scene grow and become so amazing is the freedom of the operator to show their vision,” says Shepherd. “I am afraid those visions will get blurred, or will change, because of the pursuit of a star.” 2015 F&W Best New Chef Michael Fojtasek of Olamaie in Austin adds that, while it would be “a dream come true” to be recognized by the Michelin Guide, “we plan to continue doing what we do the way we do it. The Austin community and our team has defined our work and will continue to do so.”

And so, a plea to the inspectors: Please try to understand Texas when making your assessments. We’re not Paris or London; we’re not New York or California. Our food is legendary around the world for a reason. It is now up to you to honor the types of restaurants that have made Texas cuisine great over the years and not expect them to cater to the guide. Reward our singularity — maybe even our barbecue — not only our ability to catch a stray fork on the floor. (You won’t need them for the brisket, anyhow.)