Starry-eyed wealth of Irish culinary talent is snubbed once again by Michelin Man

The actual awards ceremony had only started in very recent years, as Michelin competed for attention with the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. However, the overall presentation, in a dreary west London convention centre, came across as a dull, town-hall sort of affair, with laboured speeches, awkward stuttering interviews, and various invitees posting “I am here” pictures of themselves posing beside the giant white rubber Michelin Man.

It destroyed the long-held mystique Michelin once possessed. Thankfully, it had taken me all of two seconds to say “thanks but no thanks” to their invitation.

I’m not a Michelin fan, nor indeed am I a fan of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants (of which I was a judge for three years). Ireland has largely been ignored by these bodies in the past and they are all so pretentiously up their own… “class”, shall we say.

Michelin seems to have noticed in the past couple of years that Ireland is in fact still here — maybe because they’re sitting at home during lockdowns scrolling Instagram like the rest of us and “discovering” the whole new food scene in Ireland. Like we haven’t been telling them for years.

They’ve been posting pictures from restaurants all over Ireland lately, but seeing as I, and others, were asked if Michelin could use our photos for their purposes, you’d wonder if anyone from Michelin had ever been in all of these restaurants. Indeed, they also ran a competition for winning chefs to submit their photos for use by Michelin.

It’s very expensive to have inspectors on the road, even if they have their own supply of tyres.

I’ve always felt they dipped in and out of a specific area in Ireland in quick dashes every couple of years, targeting a few pre-Googled restaurants before beating a hasty retreat back to the motherland.

Michelin say “inspectors visit every venue listed [in their guide] every 18 months as a minimum, and its Bib Gourmand and starred venues as many times as necessary”. This seems to bear out my thinking all along.

For instance, in 2014 the only two new stars in Ireland were both in Kilkenny — Campagne in the city and the Lady Helen Restaurant at Mount Juliet. In 2015 the list was the status quo — they stayed home. In 2016 they gave two stars in Belfast (at Ox and EIPIC), whisking down to Loam in Galway and back out of Dublin, with Mickael Viljanen’s long overdue star at The Greenhouse in the bag.

In 2017 there was Heron & Grey (now Liath) in Dublin, and the Wild Honey Inn in Lisdoonvarna. I joked at the time they must’ve come in on the ferry for lunch and then did a quick scatter down to Clare. In 2018 the list was again status quo — they had “done” Ireland the year before.

In 2019 it was time to revisit us, and the Rebel County caught fire, with three stars going to new restaurants Ichigo Ichie, Mews, and Chestnut. But the rest of the country was ignored.

In 2020 they awarded two stars to the very new Aimsir in Co Kildare, one star each to Variety Jones in Dublin, Bastion in Kinsale, The Muddlers Club in Belfast, The Oak Room in Adare, and Liath in Dublin. Were things at Michelin finally starting to change, I wondered?

However, for 2021 the only new star went to Ahmet Dede in Baltimore, who had previously been in the now-closed Mews down there.

Coming now to the present, and with Michelin having prolifically Instagrammed pictures of Irish restaurants last summer, and talk of six inspectors doing the rounds here, Irish chefs were nervous and excited.

The big day came last Tuesday, when the much-anticipated star tweets finally went out. Once again, only one specific area in Ireland got any attention at all — Dublin — with two new one star restaurants, both of which have been operating for a number of years, Bastible on the South Circular Road, and Glover’s Alley in the Fitzwilliam Hotel.

Chapter One by Mickael Viljanen was elevated to two stars, as was Damien Grey’s Liath.

With The Greenhouse having had two stars during Viljanen’s previous tenure, this was a no-brainer — but they missed the opportunity to create a really positive sensation by making it Ireland’s first three star restaurant. Just an idea.

For me, the most interesting thing is that a tiny room in Blackrock Market now has two stars.

So, once again Michelin didn’t stretch themselves — and there’s a lot of disappointment out there for deserving chefs and restaurants who can only continue to serve their excellent fare in the same superb fashion as before, and keep hoping that next year Michelin springs for a few bus passes so their inspectors can cover more ground than shanks’s pony.

Remember, everyone, the stars are out there and you don’t need Michelin to find them — you’ll get there just as fast on Goodyear or Pirelli.