Michelin finally came to Beijing.

On November 28, Michelin released the 2020 Beijing Michelin Guide, which is also the first edition of the Beijing Michelin Guide. The list includes 23 restaurants, including one Samsung restaurant (Xinrongji), two two-star restaurants (Jingzhao Yin, Wulixiang), and 20 one-star restaurants.

If you want to choose a big winner in this list, it must be a new honor for Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine. Sun Wing Kee was selected for a total of 3 restaurants, harvested 2 one-star and only 1 Samsung, and won a total of five stars.

Going back, the first Michelin guide was born in 1900, and it is nearly 120 years old today. Michelin came to Asia in 2008, and subsequently accelerated the pace of landing in China: entered Shanghai in 2016, Guangzhou in 2018, and finally Beijing in late 2019.

It is worth mentioning that there are only 113 Michelin Samsung restaurants worldwide. Michelin ’s official description of Samsung restaurants is “excellent cooking and worth a special visit.” Michelin is the highest in this dining guide. Testimonials.

In the previously published China City Guide, there were no Samsung restaurants in Guangzhou, Tanger, the original Samsung restaurant in Shanghai, was downgraded last year, and the French restaurant ULTRAVIOLET was promoted to Samsung, which shows the strictness of Michelin standards.

Wei Shujie, President and Chairman of Michelin China

Go to Beijing with controversy

What is that Michelin standard?

This authoritative dining guide in France refers to their culinary reviewers as “Star Seekers”. These visitor commissioners will visit restaurants anonymously, in many aspects such as restaurant environment, service, ingredients, culinary skills, etc. Visit restaurants at various latitudes and score comprehensively. Michelin officials claim that the standards they adhere to when publishing each guide are consistent, and strive to be fair and just.

But Michelin’s entry into Beijing was accompanied by controversy.

Ten days ago, Michelin issued a list of Beijing’s “Bibird Restaurant”, which is different from star restaurants, focusing on “inconspicuous but good value restaurants or street food. Beijing’s Bibi list includes 15 restaurants. The restaurant’s signature dishes range from roasted duck and fried noodles to bean sauce and marinade, basically covering all kinds of special snacks in Beijing. In addition to Beijing flavors, there are restaurants on the list mainly Thai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisines.

Beijing “Bibidron Recommended” restaurant list, screenshots from the Michelin Guide WeChat public account

This Bibi list has caused a strong backlash from the people of Beijing on the Internet. The hot comment on the official Weibo of the Michelin Guide is: “Do your Michelin judges hate Beijing?” “This list, really Too bad “… From the feedback in the comment area, although Beijing has been ridiculed as a” cuisine desert “on the Internet, if you say that the Bibi list represents the true level of Beijing flavor, many Beijingers are estimated Will anger the wall.

Aiming at this Bibliographic list, the founder and master chef of Chinese artistic conception Dong Zhenxiang also wrote an article entitled “ Beauty and Smells: Reflections on Michelin’s Selection of Chinese Restaurants “, in which he mentioned the documentary “China” by Italian director Antonioni in 1972 Most of the documentary shots are “hunting for China’s dark and ugly faces. The shots are women’s feet and crotch pants.” Dong Zhenxiang believes that this kind of cultural hunting still exists today-

In fact, this situation has not been completely improved until now, including the cultural superiority held by the Michelin selection, and more for Beijing snacks.The attitude of hunting strangeness will make the international community think that the standard of Chinese people’s cuisine is bursting belly, running into the water and offal, which is obviously not the mainstream and elegant taste of Chinese cuisine.

The opinions from Beijing diners and culinary experts mainly want to explain two points:

1. People in Beijing really do n’t like to eat these waters;

2. Even if these are Beijing’s custom snacks, the restaurants on the list are not frequented by locals and cannot represent the current standard of Beijing cuisine.

And continue to respect Michelin in soy sauce, is to continue to symbolize Beijing cuisine. If the main group of Michelin-oriented foreigners who come to China to visit China, continuing to recommend those “legendary Beijing delicacies” will only make foreigners farther and farther from the real Beijing delicacies.

“please” Beijing?

At the Michelin Guide Press Conference, you can also feel the surprise of the audience at the individual star-rated restaurants, but overall, it is much better than being on the list. From the generosity of the list, you can even say that Michelin is trying to “please” Beijing.

The entire Michelin Beijing Guide includes 100 restaurants. In addition to 23 star-rated restaurants and 15 Bibendum restaurants, there are 62 “Michelin Plate Recommendations”-this is the Michelin Awards launched in 2016. In recognition of “quality restaurants carefully prepared with fresh ingredients,” a translation is a restaurant that is not enough to rate stars but is also very good.

Michelin plate recommendation is usually a strong candidate for star restaurants. Maybe the star will rise. There are also many popular restaurants in this list in Beijing, but they ca n’t be rated. Fook Lou, TRB, etc.

The biggest surprise at the conference was the launch of Samsung Restaurant. According to Gwendal Poullennec, the International Director of the Michelin Guide, due to the rarity of Samsung restaurants, “generally speaking, the two-star restaurant is over.” But Michelin, who entered Beijing for the first time, not only rated a Samsung restaurant, In the first Beijing guide, the proportion of star-rated restaurants exceeded 20%, which is the highest in the first published list. once.

Except for two Italian restaurants (Four Seasons Hotel’s Mio and Bvlgari’s Il Ristorante) and one Nordic dish (The Georg), the star restaurants in Beijing are almost all Chinese food-Beijing cuisine, Roast duck, Shanghainese cuisine, Cantonese cuisine, Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisine, etc., the Japanese cuisine commonly seen in Shanghai and Guangzhou guides has been left out in Beijing.

Of course, even if the star restaurant list looks more representative than the list, it is still unavoidable. For the general public, the food list has a very low threshold for evaluation-can’t evaluate the biological science award, can’t evaluate two sentences? The Chinese have always regarded food as the sky. Each mouth has a unique set of food evaluation standards. A French dining guide cannot and does not need to convince every mouth.

But at least for the star restaurants on the list, Michelin’s traffic to them is real. In the future, diners who want to go to the list of restaurants to pick stars must be prepared for positioning in advance.

For most people, Michelin-starred restaurants are expensive and remote, and are not on their daily diet list. It’s good to chat with Michelin and eat something you like.

A list of 2020 Michelin star guide restaurants in Beijing ——

One star:

Cai Yixuan, Cuihua Tower, Big Dong (Gongti East Road), Big Dong (East Forty articles), Lijiacai (Xicheng), Fuchunju, Huaiyang, Il Ristorante-Niko Romito, Xiang Ai (Gongti East Road), < span style = "color: rgb (153, 153, 153);"> Jing Ya Tang, Lao Ji Tang, Li Yuan (Jinbao Building), Mio < / span>

Shijiu, Family’s Seven Blessings, Sheng Yongxing (Chaoyang), Beijing Kitchen, The Georg, New Glory (Jianguomen Outer Street), New Rongji (Finance Street)

Two stars:

Jing Zhao Yin, House in the room

Samsung:

Xinrongji (Xinyuan South Road)