Dubai | Eleven Michelin-starred restaurants

(Dubai) The Michelin guide awarded stars on Tuesday to eleven restaurants in Dubai, which has become the first city in the Middle East to join the family of the famous French gastronomic guide with 69 establishments selected.

Red guide inspectors have spent “months” visiting restaurants in the wealthy Gulf emirate ranging “from the most luxurious run by world-renowned chefs, to the simple bistro run by friendly locals”, said Gwendal Poullennec, director International Guide Michelin, during an event organized at the Dubai Opera.

“This is a historic moment for Dubai and the Michelin guide,” he told AFP.

Of the sixty-nine establishments selected in the first edition devoted to Dubai, two obtained the two prestigious stars which distinguish “an excellent table worth a detour”.

These are the Italian restaurant Il Ristorante by chef Niko Romito, and the STAY by Yannick Alleno, the French chef, both located on The Palm, a luxurious artificial island in the shape of a palm tree.

Nine other restaurants earned one star, but none earned the three stars for “outstanding” cuisine.

With more than 7.2 million tourists last year and a population made up of around 90% expatriates, Dubai has thousands of restaurants and chefs of different nationalities who “bring their experience, background and culture to every bite,” said Issam Kazem, head of the emirate’s tourism and trade department, one of the seven in the UAE federation.

The Michelin guide’s recognition of this diversity is “a moment of great pride”, he told AFP.

The arrival of the guide “changes the rules of the game. It is an international standard […] which pushes us to go further to offer something different,” Firas Fawaz, founder and managing partner of the selected restaurant The Artisan, told AFP.

Created in 1900 by the brothers André and Édouard Michelin for motorists, the Michelin guide is a reference for food lovers all over the world.