Is the Michelin guide coming to Shanghai? Are we even ready? Christopher St. Cavish wonders.

When France’s powerful Michelin Guide came to Asia last year, releasing a dining guide to Tokyo in November, they made a bold statement. Tokyo was awarded 191 stars, more than triple the number of the previous center of the gastronomic universe, Paris. Three stars, the highest rating, was bestowed on eight Tokyo restaurants, beating New York’s three and nearing Paris’s ten. It was an affirmation of Asia as not just a dining destination, but as the world’s gastronomic capital, and the global food press had to sharply turn its head this way.

Perhaps only because they hadn’t been taking Jean-Luc Naret, Michelin’s director, seriously. Since he was appointed in 2003, Naret’s first directive – “to move to other countries” – led Michelin out of Europe for the first time in the company’s 100-plus year history, to America. He, and his team of anonymous inspectors, landed in New York in 2005, and have since spread across the country to four other cities. But even before Michelin released its list of New York candidates, Naret had been talking about Asia, with particular attention to Tokyo and Shanghai. He wondered aloud to Restaurant Magazine in 2005 if the point of entry to Asia would be Tokyo or Shanghai. He told Bloomberg News, “If we begin with Shanghai, we could have a guide out as soon as 2006.” He told food writer Terrance Gelenter, “[Michelin] will approach Asia in the same spirit [as America], starting with Tokyo and Shanghai.”

Tokyo’s guide has gone on to sell more than 230,000 copies since its release three months ago, but what about Shanghai? Naret is renowned for his professionalism, and his interviews are careful and polished, so surely his public conjecturing about Shanghai must be more than a PR ploy? Certainly rumors have been circulating in industry circles that inspectors are currently in town, but Naret won’t comment. He told us last week, “Obviously Asia is a huge continent, and we’re considering the region from Tokyo to India to Australia. We’re not saying we won’t come to China, but if you ask me if we’re doing a Shanghai guide this year, I’m not going to tell you.”

All the Michelin press office will say is that inspectors in Asia are currently carrying out a screening process – a pre-selection to determine which city, or perhaps region, might be next. But they won’t make an announcement before March or April.

Is Shanghai even ready to be rated by Michelin? According to Tina Kanagaratnam, CEO of AsiaMedia, and co-author of the Zagat Guide’s 2005 and forthcoming 2008 edition, it’s early days. “Shanghai is still a young restaurant town,” she says. “Because of the country’s history, there was no experience of fine dining for decades – which means Shanghai has had to create a culture of fine dining from scratch.” Her co-author, Gary Bowerman, is skeptical. “Realistically, Shanghai doesn’t have the culinary sophistication of Tokyo, Singapore, or Hong Kong, and it lacks an appreciable service culture,” he says. “But it does have a hot brand to shift book copies.”

“Of course, we are still a business, and the publication of a guide takes into account the number of people interested in buying the guide,” says Naret. It’s part of a longer explanation of the criteria Michelin’s reconnaissance team uses to determine if a city is ready. Primarily, though, Naret contends that the inspectors are looking at “the number of restaurants, the level of those restaurants, and the overall maturity of the city’s dining scene.”

So is it all empty conjecture? According to Michelin’s Paris press office, from the time that inspectors landed in Tokyo, it was 18 months before a guide was published. Should Shanghai be chosen for inspection, local inspectors would need to be recruited, as Naret is adamant that Michelin isn’t seen as a French company judging the local cuisine. As he told VIA Magazine: “In France, we are French. In Italy, Italian.” The press office emphasizes that within two years of entering a new market, the entire staff is local. New York’s guide, now in its third edition, is already run entirely by Americans.

But the process of choosing local inspectors takes time. Potential candidates are flown to Europe to be trained, eating for several months at all levels of restaurants, before returning to evaluate a given city. It’s therefore an off-hand comment from Naret about this process that might reveal the most about whether we can expect a Shanghai guide anytime soon. If Shanghai’s evaluation were already underway, the inspector selection would have begun last year. But as it is, Naret says, “We don’t have any Chinese inspectors.

Is Shanghai’s dining scene mature enough for a Michelin Guide...

Jiang Liyang, veteran Shanghainese food critic: “Michelin is a good fit for Shanghai. Shanghainese like refinement, in the food and service, and the dining scene is booming.” But, he concedes, Shanghai might need Michelin’s objectivity more than Michelin needs Shanghai. “The best way our dining scene will develop is if restaurants and owners have something to be afraid of.”

Tina Kanagaratnam, CEO of AsiaMedia and co-author of forthcoming 2008 Shanghai Zagat Guide: “The short answer is that it’s probably a bit early. I’ve lived here for a decade, and almost all of the restaurants that would be in contention today did not exist in 1997. The vast majority didn’t exist five years ago."

Fu Yafen, owner of Fu 1088: “The city might not be ready, but Michelin’s standards can only help it along.”

Gary Bowerman, co-author of forthcoming 2008 Shanghai Zagat Guide: “The problem, as ever, is inconsistency across all aspects of the dining experience. I remember [interior designer] Adam Tihany saying, back in 2005, that all the world’s top celebrity chefs were vying to open here. Well, apart from two Bund franchises, which predated Tihany’s comments, none of these star names has yet opened here, and there must be a reason for that.”

Michelle Garnaut, proprietress of M on the Bund, agrees that Shanghai is still a little young for Michelin, but she raises another point about Michelin’s expansion in general: “Michelin would do well to stick to evaluating the local restaurant scene and sticking to the traditional cuisine of the country they’re in. Otherwise we’re just going to end up with a stream of international brand named restaurants with Michelin stars all over the world.”

..and who would the contenders be?

In conversations with chefs, owners, and critics (several who declined to be quoted), familiar names were repeated when asked to speculate on who in Shanghai might warrant distinction, if not a star, from Michelin. A selection: Whampoa Club, Jean Georges, Li Family Imperial Cuisine, Jade on 36, Fu 1088, Franck, Crystal Jade, Xijiao Wu Hao, Allure, and M on the Bund.

But what about our miniscule ayi-restaurants, doing homestyle food to rave reviews in the international press, like Chun? Could someplace like Chun ever win a star? By Kanagaratnam’s measure, yes. “Most definitely. One of the highlights of my not-so-young life was taking the New York Times food writer Johnny Apple there, and to see the reaction of a man who has dined at the best restaurants around the world is to realize that it ranks right up there.” Jade on 36’s Paul Pairet respectfully disagrees. “Impossible,” he said. “Chun has many good things about it, and it’s true that the first star is meant to be only for the food, but still, no. In Paris, there are many restaurants like this that don’t get recognized by Michelin.”