Michelin Guide wants to “put Portugal on the world culinary map” – Vida
“Our inspectors have been following the evolution of the landscape’s cuisine for years. The decision we share to publish a dedicated selection is because we not only believe in the potential of the current Portuguese culinary scene, but also because we are anxious and confident that more will happen”, said, in an interview with Lusa, the international director of the Michelin Guide, Gwendal Poullennec.
The official announced this week, at the gala for the presentation of the 2023 edition of the Michelin Spain and Portugal Guide, which took place in the Spanish city of Toledo, that the ceremonies for presenting recipes from restaurants in both countries will now be held separately, something including over a decade.
Portugal, he said, “is an increasingly attractive place to dine out and the customer will be even more demanding and this will help to raise the bar”.
“For us, the future of Portuguese cuisine looks very bright, with a really strong pace of development”, maintained Poullennec.
“We want to put Portugal on the world culinary map, with a space of time and an event dedicated to placing the center of attention on the Portuguese culinary identity”, presented the international director.
Asked whether this change implies changes in the assessment of Portuguese restaurants and the work of inspectors, or even the hiring of Portuguese inspectors, the international director refused.
“We consider that we have only one team of inspectors in the world”, a team made up of women and men of more than 15 nationalities who work anonymously and travel around the world, visiting, on average, 300 to 350 restaurants a year , illustrious.
“We also involved international inspectors to contribute to this Spanish or Portuguese selection. For us it is really a world team and regardless of the nationalities of the inspectors, what is important is to have the skills open to the world and to be consistent in our estimates”, he added.
Therefore, the fact that Portugal now has an autonomous selection and an event for the advertisement does not mean that national restaurants will win more distinctions or even the maximum three-star rating (“exceptional cuisine, deserves a trip” ) – something that never happened until now.
“We apply the same methodology all over the world, we do not have predefined numbers, nor do we compromise our values or our approach”, he stressed.
In next year’s edition of the Iberian guide, Portugal won five distinctions of one (‘high-level cuisine, worth stopping by’), totaling 31 restaurants with this classification and seven with two stars (‘excellent cuisine, worth the deviation from the star ‘).
Asked to comment on what Portuguese restaurants lack to achieve the maximum distinction, Gwendal Poullenec replied: “Perhaps it will happen and we hope that it will happen one day”.
“There are many countries in the world without three-star restaurants. Thailand, for example, which is a culinary powerhouse, does not have three-star results ”, she showed.
“The best advice I can give to the chef is just to constantly challenge himself, to raise the bar, to be open to the world and, above all, to work to please his customers because among them there may be an anonymous inspector from the Michelin Guide”, he said.
More than asking what might be missing, Gwendall Poullenec defended that one should look “in another way”.
“There is no single way to get three stars. All three-star restaurants have different techniques, different products, different culinary identities. And I think that it is up to the chef to one day establish, on the map of world cuisine, a place with the culinary offer that deserves to be a destination in itself. This is the definition of three stars”, he stressed.
The 2023 guide brings together a total of 1,401 restaurants in Spain, Portugal and Andorra, including 13 with three stars, 41 with two stars and 235 with one star, in addition to 831 recommended for their quality (135 new, 15 in Portugal).
The Michelin Guide inspectors, who work anonymously, value the quality of the products, the mastery of cooking points and textures, the balance and harmony of flavors, the personality of the cuisine and regularity.