All Episodes

January 14, 2025 28 mins

Whether you're trying to spot a Michelin critic in the wild, or you're on the hunt for the world's best reindeer tartar with moss and fermented mushroom (a very common thing listeners ask us about), we've got you covered. From Katy Perry's Michelin mishap, to chefs trying to sue the guide because they want more stars, to the bizarre reason the Michelin Man prefers to pair his meals with a goblet full of nails, we've prepared a piping hot plate of facts for you. (Go ahead and tuck in!)  

...

Want to get in touch? Whether you want to share a fact, story, or even just let us know how we're doing, you can write our moms (Lalita and Paulette) at PTGeniusMoms@gmail.com. Don't worry. They'll pass the message along.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Guess what Mango was that?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
All right, well, I know you're a huge Katy Perry fan, right,
Well not really. Well, you're at least familiar with the
twenty seventeen songs she did with Migos called Bone Appetite,
right like big One?

Speaker 1 (00:24):
No, real, this is it.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
We may need to do a different episode. That's fine.
I know it's no firework. But the whole song is
basically this extended metaphor. You didn't know she was into this, right,
extended metaphors where Katy Perry is describing herself as a
delicious meal in lots of creative ways, and at one
point in the song, she says, I'm a five star Michelin.
A five star Michelin.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Mango five stars is really confident.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, it's not confident. It's ridiculous because the Micheline star
rating only goes up to three stars. And poor Katy
Perry actually didn't realize that sousicians don't fact check their songs.
I know, it's very, very disappointing.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So wait, well, why does Michelin only use three stars
and not like five or ten.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, the Michelin Star system is full of all kinds
of arbitrary, opaque, and frankly mystifying rules, and it's kind
of its whole thing. That's why they do this, and
that's what we're getting into in this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Or in the words of Katy Perry Bonepetite.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
I knew you were a big fan. Welcome back to

(01:45):
Part Time Genius. I'm will and as always, I'm here
with my good friend Mango, and somewhere behind that big
booth is our pal Dylan, who I think is trolling
us because he's decorated that booth with all these posters
of the I see. I think I see the Pillsbury
dough Boy, the Staypuff marshmallow Man, even that character from
what was it, Big Hero six, Big Hero six?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Pretty It is definitely trolling us because he's got every
other white puffy character from pop culture except the Michelin Man. Also,
where did he get so many Pillsburgh doble.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
He's impressive. He's very into like the you know, finding
the sales.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, that's probably where he really goes all out.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Well, I'm really excited to be doing this show together,
but I'm curious what made you think to do this
episode on Michelin Stars.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
So I watched this Bradley Cooper movie on a flight.
It's called Burnt, and you've seen it, and there's this
whole thing where they're talking about how to spot these
like elite reviewers from Michelin whatever, and they come in
in pairs and order in specific ways, and I kind
of want to see how much of that was true.
So that was part of it. Plus, I know your
parents are foodies and they used to have all those
menus on their porch from restaurants.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, And I just thought it'd be a fun topic.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, I'm excited to dive in. So why don't we
go back to the beginning just to think about where
the name comes from. So basically, we're going way back
to eighteen eighty nine and Michelin started out as a
tire manufacturing company, which I think a lot of people know,
but it was the brothers Andre and Eduard Michelin, and
they took over their grandfather's struggling manufacturing business and they

(03:11):
started producing tires and they were really clever, so they
pat into this removable pneumatic bike tire. They invented the
first automobile tire, and they even made rubber train.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Tires, tires for trains.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
That's supposedly why the Paris Metro used to be so quiet.
I'd never heard of this before, but just then, looking
to this, it's pretty neat and it doesn't screech like
New York's. But anyway, in eighteen eighty nine, Michelin debuts
their puffy mascot, the Michelin Man. Way back in eighteen
eighty nine.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, as Dylan pointed out, looks a whole lot like
the stay puffed guy from Ghostbusters.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yep, except he's not made of marshmallows. He's actually made
of tires. And apparently Michelin tires used to be white.
And one day Eduard looked at this pile of tires
and he was like, hey, Andre, if that pile of
tires had arms, it would look like a man. So
that's that's how this stuff comes to life.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, I mean, I guess anything's a mascot if you
put arms on it.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
And they had this kind of funny concept for it.
They named their tire man Bibindam because that comes from
the Latin phrase nunc s bibindum, which means now is
the time to drink. Because then these earliest ads, if
you look at them, he's actually holding up this goblet
of nails and broken glass, because the whole concept was
they wanted to show that michelin tires were unfazed by

(04:27):
obstacles on the road.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
So in this super weird scenario, he's drinking nails and
broken glass.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yes, the tire man, that's what it does.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Is okay, So Michelin man is like this well fed,
indestructible bon Vivonne, the kind of guy who can eatn
drink all day and night and just keep going.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
It's such as impressive.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah, it's a.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
Very French illustration of longevity. So anyway, in nineteen hundred,
Michelin begins publishing these free travel guides to France and
eventually they make guides for other parts of Europe. And
it's a pretty smart play because Michelin's basically acting like
tourism pioneers, so they're encouraging ordinary people to take longer
and longer road trips. As you know, of course, helps

(05:05):
boost hire sales, and from the beginning of these tourism
road trip guys included restaurant recommendations so.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
I guess these early French travelers weren't like eating handfuls
of Twizzlers or beef jerky on they.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Really missing out, really really missing out. And Michelin was
smart about their review system too. The reviews were always
conducted anonymously, and so this gave Micheline this extra layer
of credibility with customers. They weren't just handing out good
reviews to friends. Then you fast forward to nineteen twenty
six when the stars first began appearing. So this is
a quarter of a century later, but at that time

(05:39):
they're all awarded to restaurants in France, and so initially
they were just starred and non starred restaurants. But then
in the nineteen thirties, Michelin created the three star system
that remains in place today.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
So there's no real reason that it's three stars.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
They just kind of decided that. I mean, they're French,
so they have to do something. It's a little different.
I don't know if you've ever been to a Michelin
star restaurant, Mango a one or two or I got
a three Mango.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Listen, Milo's a three star restaurant.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
The fast food burger joint, I think it was two stars,
and still they started putting that extra nub of meat
on the paddy. It's a little bonus nub, and then
that got them to three. No, actually I don't think
they have any stars mego.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So I think what's funny about the whole Michelin Star
thing is how vague the distinctions are between sort of
the one, two and three star establishments.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
What do you mean by that?

Speaker 1 (06:29):
So apparently one Michelin Star is award to restaurants using
top quality ingredients, where dishes with these distinct flavors are
prepared to a consistently high standard.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yeah that sounds good.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, it totally sounds good. And then two Michelin Stars
are awarded when the personality and talent of the chef
are evident in these expertly crafted dishes and their food
is refined and inspired.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
M hm also sounds good, m H.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
And three Michelin Stars, the highest award, is given for
the superlative cooking of chefs at the peak of their profession.
The cooking is to an art form, and some of
their dishes are destined to become classics.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
That also sounds good.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
Mengo system, that's the things they all sound good, I mean,
and they also kind of sound the same, right, like
like one star is good, two stars is more good,
and three stars is just like more and more good.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Seriously, it's good.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Yeah, So how do you eat a meal and decide
that the food is refined and inspired versus you know,
a meal that's an art form? Right? How do they
even make these judgments?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
Well, I'm glad you asked that, mango.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, it's almost like I set you off.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
So the judging is done by anonymous Michelin inspectors, all
of whom work full time and have prior restaurant and
hospitality experience. Multiple inspectors dine at a restaurant under consideration,
and then they talk about these ratings together, so it's
not just one person that's passing judgment on a place
after a single meal. Inspectors visit multiple times for different

(07:51):
meals with the goal of experiencing the full range of
the menu. So it's a really thorough process. And Michigan
claims there is quote no sek mathematical formula and that
decor degree of formality, type of cuisine, like all of
that that they really don't matter. Of course, there are
five specific criteria the judges used to award stars. So

(08:13):
here they are. The first is quality the ingredients, the
second is the harmony of flavors. Then you have the
mastery of culinary techniques. Fourth is the personality of the
chef is expressed through their cuisine. And then the fifth
is consistency of the above but across the entire menu
and over time. And it's worth mentioning. There's also this

(08:35):
thing called the bib Gourmand designation and it's given to
the most affordable restaurants that offer high value for the money.
And I have wondered this before because you'll notice this
in cities. Sometimes it'll be like a diner or something
like that that'll end up with a Michelin Star. I
do think that's pretty cool that thinks they think about
it this way. But all of this judging has done
completely anonymously, and that just actually seems crazy to me, Like,

(08:57):
I don't understand how these inspectors could keep their identity
a secret if they're hopping around to all the world's
best restaurants multiple times a year.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, and that's exactly the part I wanted to dig into.
So why don't we tackle that after.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
A break sounds good. Welcome back to part time Genius,
where we're talking about Michelin stars and why chefs are

(09:31):
so darn thirsty for them. So Megel, I think you
were just about to tell us how the food criticism
at Michelin works.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
That's right. So in two thousand and nine, The New
Yorker published this profile of a New York inspector and
it's super fun and cloak and dagger. The inspector's pseudonym
was Maxine, and the first really interesting thing is that
she said most Michelin executives don't even know who the
inspectors are.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
In fact, inspectors are told to keep their work secret
from their friends and even from their parents.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I have to be honest, I don't think I could
keep that secret from my parents.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, I know. I feel like Bill and Paulett would
definitely be dining with you and bringing everyone boxes of
fancy leftovers. But Maxine revealed that she ate restaurant meals
about two hundred days per year, dinner and lunch, and
almost always alone, because inspectors really can't risk being identified
through conversations at the table.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I love eating out, and I love eating out at
good restaurants, but two hundred days a year I have
to and especially like by yourself most of the time.
That kind of seems like torture.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
I know. It's almost like work travel, Like as a kid,
you think it's going to be so exciting, like on
the road in hotels and stuff, and then you do
it for a few months and it kind of loses
the charm. But at Michelin, the system is almost set
up like this secret service. So Maxine said when she
was being considered for the job, she had to eat
several meals under supervision of inspectors who operated like spies.

(10:55):
And this is her quote. You never know the name
of the person you're meeting. You never know where their
meeting until right before, so they call you up and
say meet me at the corner of XYZ and.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Xyz, so dramatic, like you kind of forget for a second,
we're talking about food, Like it seems like a national
security thing, but it's really like who has the best
pork belly.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, And aspiring inspectors also have to attend a secret
Michelin training course in France, and then they have to
complete all this additional still anonymous training in another country,
and then they do a three to six month still
very anonymous apprenticeship with a more senior inspector. So another
anonymous inspector from a twenty seventeen Food and Wine article

(11:36):
did shed a little bit of light on what happens here.
He said, we always order three courses, an appetizer and
entree and dessert, and we try to pick items that
are the best representation of the menu concept or chef's talents.
But of course, despite Michelin's best efforts, in December two
thousand and three, there was this big tell all.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
I was hoping you would get to a tell all.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah, you kind of have to hope for it. So
this book comes out from this inspector in Pascal Remy,
who was fired after revealing that he'd kept a diary
of his career, and he planned to publish this book.
And so the book is called The Inspector Sits Down
at the Table, and it was published in France in
April two thousand and four, and it caused a huge stir.
One journalist from France called it a storm and a

(12:18):
saucepan A storm.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I kind of love that.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Yeah, it's great, right, It's also a good description of Ruby,
but Remy alleged some pretty wild stuff in this book,
all of which Michelin disputes. He said that despite publishing
new guides with updated ratings every year, Michelin didn't actually
visit or revisit every restaurant annually, which is a huge
scandal right in part because there aren't enough inspectors. Remy

(12:43):
wrote that there were only five inspectors in all of
France as of two thousand and three when he was writing,
which is not nearly enough to cover the country's ten
thousand restaurants. He also said there's some three star restaurants
which were secretly deemed untouchable, so like, under no circumstance
could they lose their talk rating, even though Remi claimed
more than a third of the guide's three star rated

(13:04):
establishments didn't actually meet the three star criteria.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
I feel like that's a really bad look for a
rating system that's supposed to be, you know, super objective
and impartial for this whole history of its existence. But
when you have something like a Michelin star that sought
after and means so much to these restaurants, there's definitely
going to be some fallout from this.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
So what are you thinking about right now.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
Well, for example, obviously, getting a Michelin star can catapult
a restaurant into fame in many cases bring these huge profits.
But losing a star, and I'd not really thought about
this before, but it can bring just the opposite of
that effect. So Thornton's at the Fitzwilliam Hotel, a high
end Dublin restaurant, lost its Michelin star back in twenty fifteen,

(13:46):
and it maintained this star for two decades, and when
it did, profits dropped by seventy six percent by the
end of twenty sixteen. Yeah, and actually the place ended
up having to close after that. And as the chef,
Kevin Thornton told The Irish Independent, losing the star felt
like quote getting stabbed in the heart. I mean, it

(14:06):
means so much to these people. In fact, one chef,
Bernard Laisseau, was so terrified of losing his three Micheline
stars that it may have actually contributed to his two
thousand and three suicide.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's really terrible.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, it really is. I mean he'd been running this
Burgundy restaurant called Le Couteur, where he had actually gotten
a third Michelin star in nineteen ninety one. But in
two thousand and three, this French newspaper Le Figaro published
this rumor and claimed that he was slated to lose
his third star, and his widow told The Observer that
the rumor had a real impact on her husband because

(14:41):
he feared that losing a star would have these devastating
financial consequences. But one of the saddest parts of the
story is after his death, the two thousand and three
Michelin Guide gave the restaurant its usual three stars. That
is so sad, it really is. But it's not just
losing a star that can have negative consequences for a restaurant.
Even getting a star can throw a place into turmoil.

(15:04):
So it's an example of that. After being listed in
the twenty sixteen Hong Kong Guide, there was this dessert
shop called Kai Kai Dessert that was forced to move
because its landlord got greedy and thinking that it would
bring this new spike in business, he raised the rent
by one hundred and twenty percent, which is awful. Yeah,
the owners did get lucky though. There was this loyal

(15:25):
customer that offered them rent in a nearby space at
a rent that he could afford, but the Michelin Star
branding can be especially tough on small establishments that don't
have the capital or the capacity to meet this sudden
demand that comes with a rating. Like seventy two year
old Jafi, who earned a Michelin Star in twenty seventeen
for her cooking at an open air street food restaurant

(15:47):
in Bangkok. So the award made her this overnight celebrity,
which is great, but she was one of only seventeen
chefs in Thailand with a star, and a few months
later she actually told a reporter she wanted who give
the star back?

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Can you actually give a starback?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Not really? But if I explain that her restaurant's vibes
had been super relaxed before and the star had basically
turned it into chaos, I actually feel like I've experienced
this before at restaurants when they seem so good and
suddenly they gained this notoriety and that experience has just
changed totally. So the award made her this overnight celebrity.

(16:24):
She was the only person cooking, so suddenly there was
this increase in traffic, and it meant she no longer
had time to take breaks or chat with their diners
that were there, and her servers were overwhelmed from the
stress and just worry that neighbors on their street were
going to get angry because of the crowds and the noise.
But the worst part was that Jay Fi had all
these tax inspectors that started showing up seemingly because they

(16:47):
thought she must be making more money than she had reported,
and they kept trying to look through her books.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
So is jay the only chef who's tried to give
these stars back? Have you heard more?

Speaker 2 (16:57):
Not even close? So there's this South Korean chef oh
Ya Kwan got an Italian eatery called Restaurante O, and
it received a Michelin star in twenty seventeen. It was
a guide to soul dining there and O claims that
as soon as he learned this, he contacted Michelin and
asked to be removed, but it unfortunately didn't work for him,

(17:18):
and his restaurant appeared again in twenty eighteen with a star.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
So, I mean, I guess there's another way, right, he
could just try to lower the quality of the food
theirs out, But I mean, I guess that's not anything
any self respecting chef wants to do well.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
In the twenty nineteen edition, oh actually did lose the star,
but he still appeared in the guide, at which point
he actually sued Michelin, not for the demotion, but for
including his restaurant at all. There was this CNN interview
that he did and he explained that the guide's methodology
was part of the problem. It's the cruelest test in

(17:53):
the world, he says. It forces the chefs to work
around a year waiting for a test, and they don't
know when and it's coming.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I mean, I do love that there's this rating system
to help guide me as this outsider, especially in cities
that I don't know. But you can see how it's
hard on chefs. And also there have been strange stories
that make you question the objectivity and fairness of the organization,
like apparently Michelin inspectors are supposed to visit a restaurant
several times before they raid it, but in two thousand

(18:22):
and five, for the first time in history, Michelin was
actually forced to recall one of its guides. The two
thousand and five guide covering Belgium, the Netherlands in Luxembourg
was pulled after fifty thousand copies had already been published,
and the reason was that this Belgian restaurant, the Austin Queen,
had been given that bib Gorman designation, you know, the
one for like great cheap food, but the restaurant hadn't

(18:45):
actually opened yet loops. So you know, there's also this
issue of investors in the Michelin Guide. The whole thing
is a really expensive enterprise, and so like you're talking
about these big tabs from fine dining restaurants plus printing
up the actual guide. So some Michelin guides are the
result of investments from the countries themselves. Michelin guides to

(19:07):
Thailand and Singapore and Hong Kong are actually backed in
part by payments from the local tourism boards, which totally
makes sense, but the sums are pretty impressive. Like Thailand
paid supposedly four point four million dollars to be paid
out over the course of five years to fund like
multiple editions of the Michelin Thailand Guide.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
That is a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, and corporate sponsors can get involved too, Like to
launch the Hong Kong Guide in two thousand and eight,
Michelin got funding from several brands including Evian Espresso, Robert
Parker Wine Advocate, which Michelin owns a stake in, And
while the details are kind of scarce, it kind of
makes it hard to verify if government or corporate money
is influencing Michelin Stars, and if they are, what extent

(19:50):
are they actually having their influence? Met?

Speaker 2 (19:52):
I mean, I have to guess this is not zero.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, I mean the website Eater connected some of the
dots for Michelin Singapore g and so there's this Resorts
World Sentosa and they acted as a title sponsor the
guide and hosted this invitation only gala for the launch
of the twenty sixteen Singapore Stars Guide and after that
for the resort's restaurants also happened to snag seven of

(20:16):
those coveted Stars, So, I.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
Mean it could be a coincidence. Probably not.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
There's also been an issue with Michelin and greenwashing. So
in twenty twenty, Michelin added a new designation to the
Stars and the bib Gourmond and they call it the
Green Star. Supposedly it honors quote restaurants that are role
models when it comes to sustainable astronomy.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
So what exactly does that mean?

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, I mean, it sounds great, but it's pretty unclear
what it actually indicates. So there's this chef Chris Polisi
who wrote in this deleted blog now that the Green
Star review process consisted of one brief call to his restaurant.
There wasn't an in person audit or a detailed questionnaire,
and as he put it, there wasn't even quote a
critical question of any type. And then there's this other chef,

(21:03):
Matt Orlando, who agreed, and he told Wired there was
absolutely no fact checking during his Green Star review. I
could have said anything and it would have qualified.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Me for their ward. I'm just shocked by this.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
So Michelin says, our teams rely both on their field work,
i e. On the experience of eating in that restaurant,
as well as in depth research and conversations with restaurant
tours regarding their eco responsible practices. So that's their defense.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
I actually didn't think we could get more vague than
refined and inspired versus elevated to an art form, But
here we are. Mago.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Yeah, it's a pattern. But the near total secrecy around
this review process, especially the process by which stars are
given and taken away, means it's kind of impossible to
know if Michelin is being fair or what other factors,
whether that's money or connections or sponsorship, is actually playing
a role. And for diners and chefs, you really don't
know if the reviews are done by people familiar with

(21:58):
local cuisines.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Right right, actually on that local cuisine tip. It's worth
noting that even though in recent years Michelin has expanded
coverage beyond Europe and European cooking, some have definitely criticized
it for retaining an overly European lens that South Korea
and chef oh Ya Kwan, the guy who wanted to
give his starback you remember him, said that the entire

(22:20):
Soul Guide was suspect and quote a sad joke since
it only included one hundred and seventy of the city's restaurants. So,
writing in Vogue Korea, one food writer explained, the only
people who really care about having the Michelin Guide in
Seoul are those who are obsessed with Soul's international status,
like they're obsessed with impressing Western elites. They aren't confident

(22:42):
that Soul can stand on its own as a restaurant capital.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
So is there Michelin on other continents well.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
So far, Michelin's presence in South and Latin America is
pretty new and rather limited, and it doesn't seem aware
that Africa exists just yet. Somebody should tell them about Africa.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
I also noticed that you didn't mention Antarctica.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's a real snub, to be honest with you. But
the research station near this one ice dome supposedly has
just the most amazing papoosas.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
So they're missing out. Well before we sign off, maybe
we do a quick backup. Absolutely, how would we start
with the world's most remote Michelin star restaurant? This two
star restaurant called Cox in Elimanok, a tiny settlement on

(23:33):
Disco Bay in Greenland. The town has a population of
fifty six, but the restaurant's staff has brought that up
to eighty eight now and today. It's accessible by boat
in the fall and summer, but in the winter and spring,
when icebergs clogged the bay, you can only get there
by helicopter.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
Wow, And so what can you get there?

Speaker 1 (23:52):
There's a tasting menu that includes more than twenty courses
and it costs about four hundred and seventy dollars or
thirty two hundred Danish kroner, which.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I know you didn't have to do that conversion. Yeah,
I knew.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
The food is all locally sourced, and you get dishes
like raw whale skin marinated in currant leaf oil, musk
ox broth, reindeer tartar with moss and fermented mushroom comfort food,
and ptarmigan with black currant salsa.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Okay, all right, well, speaking of one of Michelin's cheapest restaurants.
Back in two thousand and nine, the dim sum restaurant
Tim Howan opened in Hong Kong and set the world
on fire, and within just a year it received a
Michelin Star, becoming the world's most inexpensive Michelin starred restaurant.
But almost as quickly it expanded beyond its humble roots,

(24:40):
and today Tim Howan is a multi national chain with
locations in twelve countries, including two where you live in
New York City, which is maybe the best way of
dealing with the headache of getting a star anyway. Tim
Howan Hong Kong no longer has a Michelin Star, but
it does have the bib gourmand as a nation.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, I was actually reading about another one of these
cheap eats. The Michelin twenty sixteen Guide for Singapore, which
was their inaugural guide there, gave this star to a
street food hawker for the first time. The person's name
was Leo Fan and the restaurant is Hong Kong Seya
Sauce Chicken, rice and Noodle, and it also claimed to

(25:21):
be the most inexpensive Michelin Star restaurant for a while.
It's famous sey sauce chicken dish cost about two dollars.
But just like your chef, Tim Howan quickly used that
star to open.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Up a slew of franchises. Yeah, not surprising. So I
know we talked about all these chefs trying to give
back their stars, but there are plenty who lose stars
and desperately want them back, including the French chef Mark Verrat.
So in twenty nineteen, Verat lost this lawsuit he brought
against Michelin after the guide demoted his restaurant from three

(25:53):
stars down to two. And the thing is he wasn't
actually asking for the star to be reinstated, but he
was trying to get Michelin to provide the names and
resumes of the inspectors who graded him, as well as
proof that they had in fact eaten at his restaurant.
And for their part, Michelin refused, saying they had to
protect their inspector's and anonemity, but that the demotion was

(26:15):
based on one detail. Verat used English Cheddar in his
soioux flet I means just a big mistake, choose mistake.
So for his part, Verrot insisted that he had never
done any such thing, and in fact, he showed the
court a video of the soufflet's preparation. It used two
French cheeses, Beaufort and Roblachan, and Verat told CNN, I'm

(26:39):
ready to accept losing a star, but they have to
tell me why. In my opinion, they are incompetent. Do
you realize they mixed up Roeblachan and Cheddar. I mean,
my god, can you imagine this? So the court ruled
against Verat, saying there was no proof that he and
his business had suffered any damage from the demotion, and
to be fair, it does feel like if you've got

(27:01):
the sophisticated palette of a Michelin chef, it is hard
to mix up cheddar and roblesh On, which is this soft,
squishy cheese that kind of looks like Brie or Beaufort,
which is basically a type of griere. And I feel
like this is probably a conspiracy that we can investigate
in a different episode cheese controversies.

Speaker 1 (27:20):
Well, I really like that last fact, and I think
I'm going to give you today's trophy.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Oh that's so kind of you. All Right, I'm going
to place this on Dylan's desk for all of those
Pillsbury dough boys to admire. That's it for today's Part
Time Genius. If you like the show, make sure to
tell every single person you know, seriously, every single person,
but thank you for listening.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
This show is hosted by Will Pearson and Me Mongaish
hetique and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan
with support from Tyler Klang.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
The show is.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvel and Ali Perry,
with social media support from Sasha Gay trustee Dara Potts
and Viney Shorey. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

Part-Time Genius News

Advertise With Us

Follow Us On

Hosts And Creators

Will Pearson

Will Pearson

Mangesh Hattikudur

Mangesh Hattikudur

Show Links

AboutRSS

Popular Podcasts

I Do, Part 2

I Do, Part 2

From Executive Producers Jennie Garth, Jana Kramer, Amy Robach, and T.J. Holmes. Did you think you met the love of your life and marry him, only to realize it was actually “thank you, next?" Did this jerk cheat on you and leave you feeling alone and hopeless? Don’t make the same mistake twice... Get it right THIS time! Is it time to find true love…again?! If you loved the Golden Bachelor, SILVER just might be your color. Older and wiser, 50 and Fabulous, and ready for a little sex in the city. Everyone has baggage, but you’re not bringing it on this trip. Second Times The Charm. I Do, Part Two. An iHeartRadio podcast...where finding love is the main objective.

Dateline NBC

Dateline NBC

Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

The Bobby Bones Show

The Bobby Bones Show

Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.