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Guide for the Bay Area, hit the stores this week, and the local foodies are picking it apart, accusing them of using “outdated references”.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.
nancy says
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.
Kevin Sheehy says
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.
inthefold says
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.