For the second year in a row, the Michelin stars for the UK have been leaked online, forcing the company to abandon its own release date.
London's 2010 Michelin starred restaurants - see the full list here
News that some sites had already seen the 2010 guide leaked on Friday 15th January on Twitter, four days earlier than expected, when Restaurant magazine editor Paul Wootton tweeted; ‘Just had a call from Michelin. The results have been leaked again. They'll be online at around 3pm today...’
The main news is that Gordon Ramsay at Claridges has lost its Michelin star and The Capital has lost both - a major disaster for such a high-end restaurant. On the positive side, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester goes from two to three Michelin stars while The Ledbury goes from one to two.
'After our award last year of Two stars, rising three, we have strived to reach the coveted three star status,' said Ducasse today. 'To receive such prestigious recognition from Michelin is a great honour. The team here has worked very hard to maintain the level of service and cuisine, and I am very proud of our achievements.'
New one-starred restaurants in London are as follows:
- The Harwood Arms
- Bingham Restaurant in Richmond
- Apsley’s at the Lanesborough
- Galvin at Windows
- Tamarind
- Texture
New London restaurants who get the Bib Gourmand this year for good food at reasonable prices are:
- Sushi-Hiro (Ealing)
- 500 (Archway)
- The Draper's Arms (Islington)
- Bocca di Lupo (Soho)
- Bar Trattoria Semplice (Mayfair)
- Le Provence (Richmond)
- Terroirs
'We feel very honoured to be included in the list of Bib Gourmands,' Ben Maschler from The Draper's Arms told Hot Dinners. 'Serving good food at a reasonable price' is exactly what we set out to do. This is a great credit to our Head Chef, Karl Goward, and all his team.'
Of those restaurants that have been overlooked, perhaps the biggest surprise is Corrigan's. This launched to great fanfare and ecstatic reviews earlier in 2009 and many were expecting the star that Michelin awarded to his stint at Lindsay House to be transferred to his new Mayfair home. Two other chefs to be overlooked were Tristan Welch at Launceston Place and Francesco Mazzei at L'Anima.
It all goes to show that even though plenty of chefs and restaurateurs have a negative attitude to the guide, it still causes a stir. Back in November, restaurateur Oliver Peyton told Hot Dinners: ‘I don’t understand why on God’s earth people use Michelin in Britain as a test of British restaurants and British food. The whole concept to me is outrageous. The Michelin guide was born out of a particular type of cuisine in France and under no circumstances would I read the Michelin guide to Britain. It means nothing to me.’
And Peyton’s not the only one to feel the Michelin guide doesn’t represent the UK. Michael Caines told us: ‘I think Michelin is important as a historical guide that has huge significance and chefs idolise the guide for all the right reasons. But I believe that we do sometimes look too much to the guide. I think that Michelin are missing a trick here in the UK. If Tokyo can have twelve 3- star restaurants in one city and the whole of the UK has only three [now four], then in many ways Britain is being misrepresented.'
London's 2010 Michelin starred restaurants - see the full list here
