> And some of it is just strange. Michelin ratings as a measure of the strength of an economy? Cultural factors matter as much as economic strength, there.
I was in a theater on the 4th to watch _Nausicaa_, and one of the previews was for a documentary about some sushi chef. Breathlessly it mentioned that he was the first Japanese restaurant to receive 3 Michelin stars.
I was a little astonished. 'Yes, I know 3 Michelin stars is very hard to get, but this must've been in the last 20 or 30 years - how could Michelin have deprived Japan of any 3-star rankings for so long after WWII? Their restaurants are not unusually better these days than they were over the last century or two.'
The obvious answer is that Michelin didn't have any real presence but began ramping up relatively recently (perhaps during the bubble). So it wouldn't be surprising if the coverage continued to increase despite whatever the true trend of Japanese restaurant quality is (up or down).
The movie is called Jiro Dreams of Sushi. My recollection is that Jiro's tiny restaurant was the first Sushi restaurant to receive 3 stars, and it received them in the first year it was visited by reviewers.
The movie itself is a stunning testament to the power of doing something narrow and deep extraordinarily well. I cannot recommend it enough.
I was in a theater on the 4th to watch _Nausicaa_, and one of the previews was for a documentary about some sushi chef. Breathlessly it mentioned that he was the first Japanese restaurant to receive 3 Michelin stars.
I was a little astonished. 'Yes, I know 3 Michelin stars is very hard to get, but this must've been in the last 20 or 30 years - how could Michelin have deprived Japan of any 3-star rankings for so long after WWII? Their restaurants are not unusually better these days than they were over the last century or two.'
The obvious answer is that Michelin didn't have any real presence but began ramping up relatively recently (perhaps during the bubble). So it wouldn't be surprising if the coverage continued to increase despite whatever the true trend of Japanese restaurant quality is (up or down).