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Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

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Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#61

Post by nether »

bane wrote: post #21

Until recently, I thought Michelin stars were awarded everywhere if the food was good enough. As it turns out, only select cities are reviewed. Recently there's been a big push to get Michelin to review food in Seoul, South Korea (which was successful). I always just thought the lack of stars meant the food scene wasn't quite good enough. It turns out the lack of stars in, say, Washington D.C., just means they haven'…

Michelin critics are also trained to evaluate restaurants on specific Michelin criteria and to not just give their personal take on the food. So "good enough" is very specific here to what Michelin considers important.

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#62

Post by cableshaft »

hiou wrote: post #49

* > Incredibly, the 51-year-old, who works 17 hours a day* Could anyone comment on if this is an exaggeration? After commuting plus basic life tasks like bathing etc, this would allow him for a realistic maximum of 5 hours of sleep a day. And that is optimistic as likely this results in about 4 hours a day. It seems like the story of a person who has gone 35 years on 4 hours of sleep a day is possibly more interestin…

Well he does food service, which is generally really busy during lunch and dinner, and almost dead outside of those times, so even if he's present for 17 hours, I bet there's some downtime. I know when I worked fast food there was times we kept busy by playing stupid games like hide and seek in the restaurant.

Yeah, it's still work, but it's probably not a hard, strenuous job for all 17 hours of the day.

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#63

Post by niravshah »

bane wrote: post #21

Until recently, I thought Michelin stars were awarded everywhere if the food was good enough. As it turns out, only select cities are reviewed. Recently there's been a big push to get Michelin to review food in Seoul, South Korea (which was successful). I always just thought the lack of stars meant the food scene wasn't quite good enough. It turns out the lack of stars in, say, Washington D.C., just means they haven'…

DC is getting a Michelin guide this October

https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/05/31/michelin-star-resta...

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#64

Post by tamana »

bane wrote: post #21

Until recently, I thought Michelin stars were awarded everywhere if the food was good enough. As it turns out, only select cities are reviewed. Recently there's been a big push to get Michelin to review food in Seoul, South Korea (which was successful). I always just thought the lack of stars meant the food scene wasn't quite good enough. It turns out the lack of stars in, say, Washington D.C., just means they haven'…

Michelin is an auto company. The star system was originally a marketing project to promote road trips (and dining on the road) in regions Michelin did business.

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#65

Post by aaron695 »

cyberferret wrote: post #26
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #2

I have tried to comment on this several times but cannot say what I mean : my last try... This is a fairly big deal for me - not because Michelin awarded a street vendor a star. I don't think this is a stunt, Singapore has sufficient vibrancy in this market that someone was going to be worth a star once they started looking. No this is a big deal because of the golden future of humankind. Somehow it's possible for al…

While I appreciate your sentiment and objectives, in this case we are talking about Singapore - one of the most affluent Asian cities. The standard of living, health, safety is probably better than most Western countries. As other have pointed out, if awards like the Michelin one can provide recognition and support for actual third world countries, then it will start to make the difference you are looking for. I eage…

> I eagerly await to see if we will see street vendors in places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Bali, Bangladesh etc. being nominated/winning stars.

Unfortunately this is not going to happen. A street vendor got a Michelin star in Singapore because it is such a super rich place.

As mentioned even the lack of a dependable supply chain in these poorer countries would be crippling to the last 5% Michelin requires.

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#66

Post by tamana »

avar wrote: post #24
beachstartup wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is just my opinion, but i don't think this is literally 'street food' -- it's not on the street, it's in a food court inside of a shopping mall frequented by affluent professionals. in my experience, east and southeast asia have the best 'food court' cuisine on earth, probably by an order of magnitude. nothing i've seen on any other continent even comes close. i think this is just michelin recognizing that fact.

It's not inside a mall, it's in a hawker center, a complex that doesn't have traditional shopping and is literally many levels of nothing but small one-man eateries. Saying that it's not "street food", I think, glosses over the context of what these things are in Singapore. There was a concerted effort by the government at some point to bring what were "street food" stalls in the western sense into regulated hawker c…

"street food in the western sense" is funny in USA because USA has nearly no street food in the sense of the western view of Asian streetfood vendors. USA has "food trucks"

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#67

Post by tamana »

crdb wrote: post #32

I have mixed feelings about this Guide and I think it's important to see the backstory. The origins of the Michelin Guide were to be a trustworthy guide for its salesmen travelling around the country. Gradually, it became the de facto standard for an impartial guide that not only checked food quality with experienced, anonymous inspectors but also consistency with repeated visits - all costing a fortune, all more tha…

It's a little funny to say that a vendor doesn't deserve a star because the regional food culture is so good that the concept of food criticism is unnecessary.

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#68

Post by dllthomas »

tamana wrote: post #66
avar wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not inside a mall, it's in a hawker center, a complex that doesn't have traditional shopping and is literally many levels of nothing but small one-man eateries. Saying that it's not "street food", I think, glosses over the context of what these things are in Singapore. There was a concerted effort by the government at some point to bring what were "street food" stalls in the western sense into regulated hawker c…

"street food in the western sense" is funny in USA because USA has nearly no street food in the sense of the western view of Asian streetfood vendors. USA has "food trucks"

Hot dog cart?

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#69

Post by crdb »

tamana wrote: post #67
crdb wrote: post #32

I have mixed feelings about this Guide and I think it's important to see the backstory. The origins of the Michelin Guide were to be a trustworthy guide for its salesmen travelling around the country. Gradually, it became the de facto standard for an impartial guide that not only checked food quality with experienced, anonymous inspectors but also consistency with repeated visits - all costing a fortune, all more tha…

It's a little funny to say that a vendor doesn't deserve a star because the regional food culture is so good that the concept of food criticism is unnecessary.

I don't quite understand what you mean. Mind expanding on your point?

Re: Street food chef's stall becomes world's first to earn Michelin star

#70

Post by marcelfahle »

StanislavPetrov wrote: post #60
hiou wrote: post #49

* > Incredibly, the 51-year-old, who works 17 hours a day* Could anyone comment on if this is an exaggeration? After commuting plus basic life tasks like bathing etc, this would allow him for a realistic maximum of 5 hours of sleep a day. And that is optimistic as likely this results in about 4 hours a day. It seems like the story of a person who has gone 35 years on 4 hours of sleep a day is possibly more interestin…

It says 17 hours a day but it doesn't say anywhere in that article how many days he works, in which case he'd be able to recover (somewhat) on days off.

Most of the food stalls in Singapore and elsewhere are closed one day per week.
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