sck - I suspect some of the HK-owned Michelin-star winners in Shanghai were sounded out to the inspectors beforehand, and some strings were pulled. Take for example the inaugural Michelin guide to Singapore in 2016, they awarded 2-Michelin-stars to Shoukouwa, a four-month-old Japanese eatery which most Singaporeans have not even heard of - all because it was a joint venture with 3-Michelin-star Sushi Shikon of Tokyo. At the same time, 90% of the good eats in Singapore, including mainstay restaurants which Singaporean families go to, or hold special celebratory dinners were ignored, mostly in favour of foreign chef-driven restaurants and those popular with Singapore’s Western expatriate community.
And they awarded 1-Michelin-star to two Singapore hawker stalls - one of which serves soy-sauce-chicken on noodles. Most of us suspected that the Michelin inspectors mistakenly went to this stall thinking it serves Hainanese chicken rice, which is the Singapore hawker food staple, not soysauce chicken, of which 99% of Singaporeans would be more familiar with Chiew Kee or Chew Kee ([Singapore] Soysauce Chicken Noodle War: Chiew Kee vs Chew Kee) rather than the Michelin-starred HK Soysauce Chicken Noodles.
I’d buy the Michelin Guide for France, or the UK. For their new ventures into Asia, no.
