Jiro Ono, the head chef of the Sukiyabashi Jiro, a sushi restaurant removed from the latest edition of Tokyo Michelin Guide. (Image via Tsunagu Japan)

Sushi restaurant in Tokyo removed from Michelin guide

Featured in a documentary film in 2011, “Jiro Dreams of Sushi”, Sukiyabashi Jiro restaurant in Tokyo was instead removed from the Michelin Guide handbook. Located in Ginza, Tokyo, Sukiyabashi Jiro became the first sushi restaurant in the world to receive three Michelin stars.

Serving good sushi by the renowned sushi chef, Jiro Ono (94), why did the handbook remove the sushi restaurant?

The newest edition of the Tokyo Michelin Guide did not drop Sukiyabashi Jiro because its sushi is not good anymore, but because it had become too luxurious. It is almost impossible for a regular person to eat the Japanese delicacy there. More and more Japanese celebrities and politicians were seen having sushi at the restaurant.

And, as time passed by, Sukiyabashi Jiro grew more “arrogant”. Even, an English message on its website stated that it would be difficult for foreign tourists to grab sushi there.

According to Michelin’s representative, the sushi restaurant does not accept regular reservations from regular people. For Michelin, it was definitely out of question. Michelin’s standard is to list restaurants with good food for “everyone”. Moreover, Sukiyabashi Jiro only received 10 reservations daily.

Sukiyabashi Jiro once welcomed the 44th President of the United States (U.S), Barack Obama, who dined there with Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Even, for Obama, sushi from Sukiyabashi Jiro is the best he had ever had.

Meanwhile, it was quite an outrageous standard, this kind of restaurant culture is not uncommon in Japan. Many top-class Japanese restaurants only take reservations from regulars or acquaintances of the chef. The passerby? They wish. Even foreign tourists need to book a reservation through a top-class hotel to get there.

For Michelin, many chefs are unhappy about how it tests their restaurant. Michelin is known to be secretive, in terms of how they judge. Therefore, some chefs decided to bring the case to the judges.

French chef, Marc Veyrat, sued Michelin for drowning him in depression and anxiety due to losing one of his three Michelin stars over a Souffle misunderstanding. Meanwhile, a South Korean (S. Korea) chef, Eo Yun-gwon, also decided to sue Michelin for listing his restaurant in the guidebook without permission, referring to the Michelin judging system as the “cruelest in the world”.

Source: https://cnn.it/35Q38F0