Ranjit Mankeshwar is a passionate diner. The Mumbai-based physician is planning a food-focused holiday in Hong Kong. He will browse through the Michelin Guide, pick a restaurant, make a reservation and then book his flight tickets. “For me, the guide is like an entry point (to a city),” says the 59-year-old. On a trip to Bangkok, he planned his itinerary around the Michelin-starred Nusara, Sühring and Potong.
Hindustan Times recently reported that a senior tourism ministry official had said the government was in the final stages of signing a deal to bring the Michelin Guide, a globally recognised restaurant rating system, to India.
Receiving a Michelin Star or two is considered the high point of a restaurant’s life cycle because the rating criteria is strict and the inspections anonymous. A restaurant could get one star for high-quality cooking worth a stop; two stars for excellent cooking worth a detour; and three stars for exceptional cuisine worth a special journey. Additionally, there’s the Bib Gourmand, a title reserved for budget-friendly places, and an extended list for those with good cooking irrespective of the price.
The tourism ministry official had said the Michelin body would do a six-month audit after the deal is closed. Elsewhere, the guide is city-specific, and therefore it is unlikely to be present in every nook and cranny of India, at least in the initial years.
For Mankeshwar, and industry insiders, the announcement is a positive development that could boost culinary tourism. The Michelin Guide doesn’t enter a region independently. It’s a strategic move, which involves signing an agreement with a tourism board for a specific number of years complete with a hefty fee. A CNN story notes that Thailand reportedly paid around ₹27.7 crore in 2017 for a partnership with Michelin. Indian restaurant Gaggan in Bangkok earned the highest accolade with two stars that year. One of Bangkok’s local street food spots, Ran Jay Fai, was awarded one star, turning its septuagenarian chef and owner Jay Fai into an overnight celebrity.
The focus on homegrown culinary experiences is one of the biggest highlights of the guide. “It was evident when Michelin Awards came to Dubai in 2022. The dining scene at that time was driven by franchise restaurants belonging to global celebrity chefs. But, the awards honoured local talent transforming the scene,” says Himanshu Saini, executive chef of Dubai’s three Michelin-starred Trèsind Studio.
Commenting on the guide’s city-specific approach, Raaj Sanghvi, of the restaurant rating and media platform Culinary Culture, thinks Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru will be the “obvious starting points”. “There’s Goa, which is a category of its own. Kolkata, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Jaipur and Kochi each have a case, though of a different kind. These are places where some of the most important food is not necessarily found in conventional fine-dining restaurants at all.”
Sid Mewara is keen to see the names in the Bib Gourmand and the extended list. The restaurant investor and co-founder of food media company Filandering Forker Media says, “There are lots of small places that need to be featured. It’s about recognising the guy who’s been making the same thing for decades, like the chole bhature at Nand Di Hatti in Delhi, and the mithais of Tawakkal Sweets in Mumbai. They have generational knowledge and if it is validated, then there is an inclination for them to keep these traditions going.”
In India, the same dish varies from region to region or even within the same region as each community or group of people has their own approach to cooking, and ingredients and seasonality play a role in preparation. The chole bhature from Amritsar, for instance, is different from the one in Delhi. How can one make a fair judgement of excellence when there are so many variations?
Rahul Rana, head chef at Dubai’s Gymkhana, says that’s why consistency is one of Michelin’s parameters. When he was heading the kitchen at Dubai’s premium vegetarian restaurant avatāra in 2023, it earned a Michelin star. Its menu spotlights vegetarian dishes from all corners of India and he talks about the bal mithai from Uttarakhand. The fudgy, mawa-based, caramelised sweet became a Michelin favourite. Rana’s team reimagined it for fine dining with a flower-shaped chocolate shell filled with a lighter version of the caramelised mawa. “For a Michelin inspector who may not be of Indian origin, one of the ways to judge Indian restaurants is through the lens of consistency,” he explains.
The other parameters based on which the anonymous inspectors assess a restaurant after multiple visits are quality of ingredients, harmony of flavours, mastery of technique and the personality of the chef as represented in the dining experience.
Arguably, chef Prateek Sadhu’s NAAR in Himachal Pradesh is a strong contender. But, it’s not located in a culinary hot spot most likely to be on the list. “Unless I move my restaurant to a city with a Michelin presence—I have no plans of doing so—it won’t qualify. Let’s say it comes to Delhi, Gurugram restaurants will not be in its ambit,” he explains.
This hyper-focus on cities is one of the guide’s main limitations. Aditi Dugar, founder of Mumbai-based Masque, is an intrepid culinary traveller. Along with the Michelin Guide, she recommends food publications like Gloobles and Mr & Mrs Smith to discover local gems for enriching food journeys.
For a country with such a vast food landscape, the Michelin Guide may not reach dining spots like The Bangala in Karaikudi, Accentuate Lab in Aurangabad and Rynsan in Shillong. And that’s why local recommendation lists will continue to matter.