Results out sooner than expected! Here they are in full
Winners include Alain Ducasse - three stars; Brett Graham - two stars at the Ledbury, one star at the Harwood Arms.
I’m not suprised that Claridges lost its star its not been right for a while.
But I was suprised to hear Michelin met Gordon to let him down gently before they released this years guide. I thought they make a point of staying at arms length. It goes totally against there convention of not talking to anyone but we all know that he gets on with Jean-Luc Naret so quelle suprise.
OMG! How do you know they met with him?
i heard they met up to talk about it to give Gordon time to react. don't know where tho.
It's not completely unheard of. In the good old days they would let someone know, sometimes just the night before, if they'd been promoted to two or three stars and if my memory serves me right they met with some chef heavyweights in the past to tell them they were taking stars off them - so warning him isn't completely new behaviour.
Why does Michelin never seem to post its results when it's expected to? Is it a cunning ploy? If so, to what end? Or is there a mole in the organisation who lets the secret out early every year?
Meanwhile, what were the biggest surprises this year, do you think? Much will be made of Claridge's losing out in the coming months, I suspect, but more power to Gordon for maintaining three stars at the flagship. It's been a bad year in many ways, but clearly standards are as high as ever at Royal Hospital Road.
It always seems to be a bit of a mess - not sure if its planned or not?!
I think the biggest surprises have been the losers. Nobody's mentioned much of the Vineyard losing two stars - most of my mates thought Daniel G would at least keep one star - and then there's the Capital.
Gordie losing a star at Claridge's is a big warning shot.
I read somewhere that Michelin released the guide early this year because Amazon accidently shipped out a load of copies early so they had no choice, although I'm not sure of the reasons for the past few years.
I definately agree with Claridges' loss being a warning shot. People have said that he has been spreading himself too thin recently, although he hasn't been behind the stove in years, and so the loss of this one must simply have been down to a drop in standards.
I do, however, think it is somewhat strange that hospital road has kept its 3 stars, and yet was missed off the 100 best restaurants this year. How can a restaurant go from top 20 to not even making the top 100, whilst still holding 3 stars?
Hi Jamie,
Yes it's true about Amazon. Someone at Paul Kitching's 21212 restaurant ordered the book and it arrived the Friday, which forced Michelin to reveal the results early.
Apparently not uncommon as it used to happen with the Good Food Guide too.