Other key takeaways from this year’s awards include the fact that vegan restaurant Eleven Madison Park keeps its three stars.
At a ceremony held on Thursday evening at Peak in Hudson Yards, where you can also get a $40 salt-baked sweet potato, Michelin revealed its 2022 stars for New York restaurants. In a departure from American Michelin custom, the book announced the names of its winners in a countdown akin to the 50 Best, complete with a Michelin Man in costume and witty announcers.
In a shocking turn of events, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka performed on stage as the grand finale of a Michelin award season that seemed designed to garner attention. The two escorted people throughout the evening, giving them prizes and frequently pronouncing the names of eateries and their proprietors incorrectly. An imbibing Harris once quipped, “We have many more names to try and butcher pronunciations of.” Following a dramatic video set to a song that should have been kept for Stranger Things’ fifth season, the stars were named in descending order.
Semma is now the only Michelin-starred Indian restaurant in the city, while Eleven Madison Park maintained its three stars and became the first vegan restaurant in the nation to hold that distinction. Modern Korean star Atomix, which many thought would be a contender for three stars this year, was once more given two stars.
Here are this year’s Michelin Award winners and losers from New York City: five.
Eleven Madison Park won.
Local critics questioned almost every aspect of Eleven Madison Park’s switch to a plant-based menu last year, including chef Daniel Humm’s cultural awareness and ideas about sustainability as well as a beet that, according to a Pete Wells column, “tastes like Lemon Pledge and smells like a burning joint.” Michelin disagreed and allowed the establishment to keep its third star, effectively making it the best vegan restaurant in the entire world.
Given Humm’s recent entry into the plant-based community, the Red Guide’s continuous endorsement of Eleven Madison is likely to draw some additional questions. Even though New York has a lengthy history of vegetarian and vegan cuisine, Eleven Madison is one of just two local vegan or vegetarian restaurants to hold a Michelin star. The inspectors last night gave Amanda Cohen’s Dirt Candy, which has served the community for more than ten years, a single star. ― The main reviewer, Ryan Sutton
Winner: Just one Indian eatery
Three Indian restaurants with Michelin stars once existed in New York. Then suddenly, it had none. That changed yesterday night when the inspectors gave Semma, a South Indian restaurant run by Roni Mazumdar and chef Vijay Kumar in Greenwich Village, a star. Semma is well-known for its aromatic gunpowder dosas. However, one may question what the inspectors are missing at Dhamaka, Junoon, Adda, Sona, and other South Asian vegetarian restaurants in the city. — RS
The city’s contemporary Korean scene won.
Inspectors awarded stars to Mari, Sungchul Shim’s handroll omakase spot; Oiji Mi, Brian Kim’s Flatiron tasting menu restaurant; and Joomak Banjum, a creative Koreatown newcomer where chefs Jiho Kim and Kelly Nam blur the line between sweet and savoury fare. Modern Korean restaurants were among the night’s big winners.
One of the most distinctive and well-regarded facets of New York’s fine dining scene is the community of modern Korean restaurants, but Michelin inspectors have yet to award one of those establishments a three-star rating. Atomix and Jungsik, who were both seen to be strong candidates for an upgrade, were both once more given two stars. — RS
The men who opened Crown Shy won.
Despite recently splitting up, Jeff Katz and James Kent, the partners who founded the posh Financial District eatery Crown Shy, won big this year. Al Coro, a fine dining establishment from Katz and chef Melissa Rodriguez, and Saga, a tasting menu restaurant from Kent, were the only two new entries to the two-star category this year, increasing the total number of two-star establishments in New York City to 13. The cost per person at the Manhattan restaurants is $245 and $295, respectively. Crown Shy, which Kent currently fully manages and which was given a single Michelin star in 2019, maintained its standing on Thursday night. — reporter Luke Fortney
Major Food Group: Loser
The raw fish-focused ZZ’s Clam Bar and the Italian American Carbone were removed from the list, leaving Major Food Group, which is rapidly expanding, with no Michelin stars in New York. — RS
Sushi restaurants you can’t afford win.
Value for money, according to Michelin, is an important factor in its ranking system. Given the inspectors’ history of bestowing stars onto nearly any neighbourhood sushi restaurant that prices $400 or more per person, that is an interesting data point. Icca and Yoshino ($closer to $500 after tip), Noz 17 ($400), and Shion 69 Leonard Street ($420) are some of the newest additions to this year’s batch of starred sushi restaurants. The only sushi restaurant in the nation with that distinction is Masa, which preserved its third star despite substantially upping its pricing to the point where a single diner must now spend over $1,000 at the counter before receiving a sip of sake. Some benefit! — RS
Too many different cuisines to count
The starred choices have traditionally been expensive eateries with European, Japanese, or Korean influences, whilst the Bibs highlight a wider range of the city’s internationally minded culinary tastes. No ramen or ramyun restaurant in the city, with the exception of Jeju Noodle Bar, has received a star; the same can be said for barbecue joints, pizzerias, taco stands, modern Vietnamese cuisine, Uzbek skewer restaurants, and dozens of other cuisines for which New York is renowned. A Thai restaurant with a Michelin star won’t be available in the city for another year. — RS
Failure: Peak
Is acceptance at the Michelin ceremony guaranteed if I provide catering or organise the event? After the event’s caterers Don Angie, Semma, and Sushi Noz received three well-deserved stars in quick succession, everything appeared possible. As the evening went on, it became apparent that Peak, the awards’ host and a former addition to the Michelin New York guide, would leave the event without any Bibs or stars, though she might have gained some additional name recognition. — LF
