The Michelin Guide is set to announce a new edition today, one that covers the entire state of California. That means San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Sacramento, and Central Coast destinations like Santa Barbara and Monterey in the state will be featured together in the first guide to cover an entire state. It will join Michelin’s other U.S. city guides: Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC.
San Francisco’s bragging rights as the city with the most three-star restaurants (it has eight, in case anyone’s counting) may no longer hold as much weight as its absorbed into a larger pool. It’s major news for Los Angeles, however, which had a brief and tumultuous relationship with the tire maker’s restaurant guide in 2008-2009, never awarding a three-star rating to a restaurant there and leaving many chefs resentful upon its departure. (The late and beloved LA food critic Jonathan Gold was famously not a fan of the guide, either.)
Still, though it has its detractors, the guide is frequently used by international guests in particular, who tend to travel extensively within the state on trips. Originally launched in the 1900s as a way to encourage customers to wear out their tires (and then buy more), the guide is still used by travelers around the world as a benchmark for dining. It remains a driver of business and attention to restaurants and chefs, particularly at the three-star level. The expansion could mean more opportunity to chefs at the one- and two-star rating.
“I think in some ways the more food criticism that’s happening, provided that it’s being done honestly and with an understanding of the way the food landscape is now, the better,” says chef Christopher Kostow of three-Michelin-starred Restaurant at Meadowood about the change. “Especially as it provides opportunities for chefs working in smaller markets, drawing more attention to the diversity of the cooking and dining experience here.”
The announcement is in partnership with California’s state tourism board, Visit California, and will happen today in Sacramento at the Golden 1 Center; the guide is expected to drop this summer.