To have a Michelin star is to be a big deal. A really big deal. When the New York city restaurant of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay lost its Michelin stars, he cried, and said losing them was like losing a girlfriend.
Why, then, would any self-respecting restaurant want to voluntarily give up its Michelin star?
According to Julio Biosca, it’s because maintaining Michelin star standards is just too much.
Biosca, the fourth-generation owner of Michelin -starred restaurant Casa Julio, announced earlier this month that though he still very much respects the Michelin guide’s work, the restaurant will be renouncing its star to save money after being in the prestigious culinary guide for so many years.
“The inspectors work really well… It is because of the respect that I have for the guide that I preferred to leave it,” said Biosca.
It’s not the publication — it’s the culture generated by the Michelin star, Biosca went on to explain, saying “When everyone is telling you you’re the best, when you don’t get your second Michelin star, you’re pissed off.”
Casa Julio, a restaurant in a small Spanish town on the border between Valencia and Alicante, was founded in the 1940s, but didn’t get a Michelin star until the mid-2000s. Everything changed when it earned the illustrious award, though. Rather than offering dishes like enchiladas and arroz con pollo — two of the most popular Hispanic foods — Casa Julio offered Mediterranean cuisine. After it earned the award, its menu shied away from the Mediterranean dishes.
Worse, its portions shrank, and its prices soared — none of which locals exactly appreciated.
Realizing that the best course of action was to return to the way things were before, Biosca tried to relinquish the Michelin star back in 2013, but found his restaurant featured in the 2014 edition. He was only able to renounce it for 2015.
Casa Julio is not the first restaurant to sacrifice its prestigious award, either. In fact, experts agree that a Michelin star often means more loss than profit. Pascal Remy, a former Michelin Guides inspector, said that whoever receives the distinction “will need more money.” He added that everything earned from new clients gets reinvested.
Though some, like Gordon Ramsey feel like they’re losing a piece of themselves when they lose their Michelin stars, others are happy to see them go, and for good reason.