This Year, Only One New Restaurant in the Los Angeles Area Received a Star From Michelin

At an awards event in Oakland, Michelin named the California restaurants that will get stars in 2023. Long Beach's Heritage was the only new restaurant in the Los Angeles area. Siblings Philip and Lauren Pretty started the multi-course tasting meal in 2020. It is run out of a converted Craftsman house and uses food from the nearby urban farm with the same name. In Southern California, Heritage is joined by the upscale Mexican restaurant Valle in Oceanside, which is part of the Mission Pacific Hotel.

Six new one-star restaurants opened in California. Four of them are in Northern California: Nari and Aphotic in San Francisco, Chez Noir in Carmel-by-the-Sea, and Auro in Calistoga. In the 2022 guide, which came out seven months ago, there were eight new stars in L.A., one new star at Caruso's in Montecito, and a third star for San Diego's Addison, which was the only place in the area to get Michelin's greatest honor.

Courtesy Sterling ReedPhoto byHeritage

After about a year and a half, Michelin has already taken the star away from Hatchet Hall in Culver City and from Phenakite, Minh Phan's now-closed taste series. The Hollywood restaurant Providence kept its two Michelin stars and also got a Green Star, which is a newer award for the most sustainable practices in the industry. The guide also announced four special awards. Kato's Austin Hennelly won the Exceptional Cocktails Award, and the restaurant kept its star. All of the other places in Los Angeles kept their stars.

Michelin, which is a French multinational tire company and arguably the most well-known restaurant guide in the world, sends anonymous inspectors all over a city, state, area, or country to find the best places to eat. One star means "a very good restaurant in its category," and two stars mean "excellent food that's worth going out of your way to try." A three-star grade means "outstanding food, worth going out of your way for."

In North America, it is well known that the guide tends to favor Japanese omakase and French fine-dining restaurants. However, each edition of the guide also includes a range of unstarred restaurants with different types of food and prices. Last week, four new restaurants from the L.A. area were added to the second group, Bib Gourmand, which is more affordable.

Chefs and diners who have been on the global fine-dining scene for a long time agree that a Michelin star is a sign of international prestige. However, the Big Red Book is clearly biased toward very fancy, very expensive restaurants that don't reflect how most Angelenos actually eat.

The source of this information is https://www.timeout.com/los-angeles/news/michelin-awards-star-to-one-new-l-a-area-restaurant-for-2023-071923.