• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu

Portland Food and Drink

Restaurant News and Information For Portland Oregon Area Restaurants and Bars

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Send me email!
  • Home
  • About
    • Home
    • About the Site
    • The Authors
    • Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
    • Email me
  • Reviews
    • List of All Reviews
    • Steakhouse Roundup
      • Steakhouse Reviews Introduction
      • El Gaucho Steakhouse
      • Morton’s Steakhouse
      • Ringside Steakhouse
      • Ruth’s Chris
      • Steakhouse – Results
  • Topics
    • Memorials
    • Food Memories
    • Travel Writing
    • Food Writing
      • Alcohol Related
        • Beer
        • Wine
        • Spirits
      • April Fools Stories For Portland
      • Contests and Competition
    • Authors / Book Reviews
    • Cheese information
    • Interviews: Honest dialog with people in the Portland food industry
    • Recipes
  • Guides
    • Portland Coffee Guide
    • Guide to Local Wine Shops
    • Guide to Portland Distilleries
    • Guide to Portland’s Beer Shops

Is Michelin Misguided – Outdated References Are Everywhere

October 6, 2006 by PDX Food Dude 3 Comments

The San Francisco Chronicle seems to think so:

Diners expecting a warm greeting from Jamie Passot as they sweep into La Folie, Michelin Red Guide in hand, are in for a disappointment.

No matter what the prestigious French restaurant guide says, the chef’s wife won’t be waiting at the door. She stopped working nights when she and chef Roland Passot had their daughter Charlotte — and Charlotte turns 13 next month.

At Bistro Don Giovanni in Napa, the Michelin-guided are told to expect the cooking of Liguria, the Italian coastal area known for pesto and seafood.

“Ligurian? I don’t do anything but regional Italian,” said co-owner Donna Scala. “Where’s this information coming from? Who did the research?”

The first Michelin Guide for the Bay Area, hit the stores this week, and the local foodies are picking it apart, accusing them of using “outdated references”. It makes one wonder if they are really taking their US guides seriously, or if they are just a new way to generate money.

But the errors in San Francisco make some wonder if Michelin even paid them a visit, including Aziza owner Mourad Lahlou, whose listing described belly dancers although none have shimmied between the tables since May 2003.

At the very least, the errors “go to the fact that they didn’t do their homework,” said Saul Gropman, co-owner of Sonoma’s Cafe La Haye, whose listing described a dish that hasn’t existed in precisely the same form since 2004.

You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Related

Filed Under: Portland Food and Restaurant News and Discussion

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. nancy says

    October 6, 2006 at 3:41 pm

    If my guess is correct, this is going to be big news. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to know how this happened (reliance on old reporting; old guidebooks; things gleaned from the internet); that indeed places were not visited and/or copy not fact-checked, and that the public and other media sources will pounce and make mincemeat of it. Hang on.

    Reply
  2. Kevin Sheehy says

    October 7, 2006 at 11:35 am

    I just listened to Jean-Luc Naret being
    interviewed on the Saturday food and dining
    show on KGO. The guy who hosts the show
    also hosts a three hour Monday through
    Friday politics/current events call-in
    show and is a reasonably accomplished
    polemicist. The host didn’t even come
    close to pressing Naret on the factual
    errors covered in the Chron article.

    Reply
  3. inthefold says

    October 10, 2006 at 11:28 pm

    If you were to “google” the differences that the local headstrong newspaper critic sights, you may find multiple US “civilians” finding the same. Styles of cooking, belly dancers and restaurants that were open prior to today. Food critics don’t like it when they are challenged. Smile to know that a couple diners in SF may benefit from the challenge.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

© 2025 · PortlandFoodandDrink.com • See Terms of Service and Privacy Policy