Michelin is perhaps the world’s most well-known dining guide, with anonymous restaurant inspectors bestowing stars on an elite class of restaurants. But for every Michelin-worthy meal there’s bound to be a few duds. The UK branch of Michelin took to Twitter on Saturday evening to describe a rather minimalist complimentary dish received at an unidentified restaurant — a single snap pea topped with what appears to be some sort of orange spice. "Don’t know whether to laugh or cry," the guide writes.
It came "with the chef's compliments". It was a single mangetout. Don't know whether to laugh or cry pic.twitter.com/HTN8iACAr9
— The MICHELIN Guide (@MichelinGuideUK) October 3, 2015
Was the mangetout intended to impress or was it payback from a chef that’s been snubbed before? The guide's authors insist that stars are merely an expression of opinion, but emotions can run high when Michelin releases its ratings each year. Anthony Bourdain recently had some choice words for the Michelin Guide, which demoted Daniel Boulud's restaurant Daniel from three start to two stars last year. Meanwhile, the Michelin Madness continues to spread. The pursuit of stars even plays a role in the plot of Bradley Cooper's new movie Burnt.
Update: October 5, 4 p.m. Perhaps the dish wasn't meant to troll the Michelin Guide. Or maybe it was meant to troll the entire restaurant.
Update on #mangetoutgate: it wasn’t just served to us – every diner in the restaurant got the mangetout!
— The MICHELIN Guide (@MichelinGuideUK) October 5, 2015
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