Shanghai restaurants await judgment

Foodies in China, from professional chefs to Joe Hungry, were abuzz this week with the news that the world's most prestigious restaurant guide is finally coming to the Chinese mainland. The Michelin Guide has launched its Chinese website, announcing that it will publish a 2017 guide for Shanghai - and that the first round of Michelin-starred restaurants will be unveiled this fall.

Michelin's long-rumored arrival suggests that the guide, originally created in 1900 as a stimulus for French taxi drivers, has finally found a way to digest the Chinese puzzle.

Guides that debuted in Tokyo (2008) and Hong Kong (2009) did a lot to cement the culinary prestige of those locales and made celebrities of chefs there. This has not been lost on restaurant promoters in China's big cities, who often tout their chefs by describing them as proteges of Michelin-starred uber-chefs abroad. Celebrity toques are regularly invited to the mainland for food-festival events, and many have established satellites of their award-winning restaurants in China.

While the European kitchen wizards with a reputation on the mainland (think Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Umberto Bombana) are obvious targets of Michelin attention, how critics for the guide would assess Chinese cuisine and the attendant dining scene has been a burning question. Would, for example, respect for tradition win more praise in Asia, while European chefs are more readily rewarded for doing something more innovative?

The guide is a selection of the best restaurants in a city, divided into four categories: "bib gourmand" restaurants that offer "exceptional good food at moderate prices"; one Michelin star denotes a "very good restaurant in its category"; two stars for "excellent cooking, worth a detour"; and three for, "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". For a high-profile restaurant chef, the only thing more dramatic than gaining a Michelin star is losing one.

The guide's mainland debut is certain to raise the profile of China's culinary practice.

Traditionally, the guide was focused on fine-dining establishments - leaving some to snipe that a gilded toilet was more likely get you a Michelin star than really excellent food - but the most recent editions have promised to award stars based on food quality alone. Michelin made headlines in 2008 by giving the Japanese capital more stars than both Paris and New York combined. The 2016 edition for Hong Kong and Macao, meanwhile, cheered many for being the first Michelin Guide to include a street-food category.

Such egalitarianism hasn't pleased everyone. In fact, Michelin has taken some heat for having different standards in Asia. One Shanghai city magazine notes that restaurant critic Andy Hayler, reportedly the only man to have eaten in every Michelin three-star restaurant in the world, considers Hong Kong's starring standards to be "egregious to the point of damaging the Michelin brand".

Such voices will be in a minority this month, however, as China's foodies await the judgment of Paris.

Most will share the enthusiasm of Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin Guides, who bubbles in a company press release: "The richness and quality of Shanghai's culinary scene completely won us over!" The city's "strong cultural heritage" and "range from popular to fine dining restaurants" were cited as giving Shanghai star quality.

In the weeks ahead, Shanghai food lovers will just have to wait and see.

Will their favorite restaurants snatch the coveted stars? Will that make it impossible to get a table there for the next six months? Will chefs that win be able to snatch the best kitchen talent from competitors who didn't make the cut - or will the wannabes invest in elevating themselves, knowing that an anonymous team of Michelin reviewers could drop in tomorrow?

Stay tuned.