Michelin Star Restaurants in Tokyo 2009
Gordon Ramsey Gains Another Star for his Restaurant at Conrad Tokyo
Dec 3, 2008
Japan is tied with Paris for the number of three star eateries in this year’s Michelin Guide Tokyo 2009, thanks to an enormous improvement in Tokyo’s gastronomy over the year. Now it plans to build on this in order to achieve even more stars next year.
With 227 stars in total (36 more than the 191 awarded last year), Tokyo can now consider itself a world leader in gourmet dining with more stars than any other city. Ishikawa joins the three star selections, and 14 restaurants join the two star ratings and 35 restaurants join the one star selection.
What Makes Japanese Cuisine So Exceptional
Japanese cuisine is truly an art form. Appearance is a key element of Japanese cuisine, delighting the eyes as much as the taste buds and placing emphasis on form, colour and the visual aspect of food arrangement. The tableware must complement the food – all must achieve harmony. The arrangement of food on the plate even extends to the way in which it is sliced and how these slices are arranged to present the perfect image.
Michelin Guides 2009The Michelin Guides are updated every year with all restaurants and hotels selected in the previous year being re-examined and new establishments which are considered interested are inspected. Since the 2008 launch, English and Japanese employees of Michelin have been anonymously evaluating restaurants and hotels.
For the 2009 selection, 13 “Ku” (wards) were visited and the quality of the products used, the cooking techniques employed, the heritage and culinary traditions which are passed down from generation to generation, were commented upon.
Michelin Guides are well known to use pictograms, fork and spoon symbols etc. to signify the quality of restaurant or hotel. This year Tokyo 2009 has two new pictograms which may confuse the westerner – one is “take off the shoes” and the other is “good selection of Sake”.
Major Establishments to Gain Stars in 2009
Two major establishments were awarded stars. The Peninsula Tokyo’s Hei Fung Terrace is one of only 7 Chinese Restaurants to receive this prestigious honour. The restaurant offers authentic Cantonese cuisine in a Suzhou garden setting which recalls the Imperial Palace Gardens.
Gordon Ramsey at Conrad Tokyo was also awarded one star and was commended for its striking open kitchen and Chef’s Table. Conrad Tokyo’s China Blue restaurant was also awarded a Michelin star for the second year.
Gordon Ramsey
The multi-Michelin starred chef, Gordon Ramsey, has expressed delight at receiving the award, and paid tribute to his talented head chef Shinya Maeda at Conrad Tokyo.
