Michelin star awards 2024: Plenty to celebrate… and feel disappointed by

Another year, another addition to the lofty Michelin Guide.

Hosted in Manchester’s suitably grand Midland Hotel, the guide announced 31 new ratings for 2024, including its ninth third star – the first in two years – and six new sustainability-focused green stars, as well as 20 new Bib Gourmands, highlighting great food at moderate prices, which were announced last week.

Whether you were clapping (slowly or otherwise), rolling your eyes or, as one fellow food writer told me, “screaming at the TV” as the awards were announced, it can’t be denied that after 124 years, it remains the most important food guide in the world.

That’s not to say that every chef covets a star, nor that those without aren’t any good: a restaurant can be perfectly fantastic without one, and just as mediocre with.

The criteria have changed innumerably over the past century and in fact still remain deliberately vague. Indeed, you could argue that the industry used to follow the awards not unlike a little lost puppy, begging for scraps; now, it seems, the guide is steered more by the movements of the industry… that is to cheaper, arguably better places outside of London.

Gossip abounds, naturally, and most of it should be ignored. Instead, I’d recommend keeping Michelin’s founding principles, published in 1936, in mind when considering the list of awards below: one star for a “very good restaurant in its category”, two stars for “excellent cooking, worth a detour”, three for “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey”.