Source: Michelin

The new Michelin Guide Main Cities of Europe 2011, published on the 16th of March 2011, brought Helsinki a new Michelin star as the restaurant Olo received the recognition. Restaurant Olo is specialized in modern Nordic cuisine.

The Michelin guide ranks restaurants and hotels in the 20 largest cities in Europe. The French tire manufacturer Michelin published its first guide already in year 1900. It was distributed for free to everybody who bought a car back in those days. There existed only about 3 000 cars at that time in France and 95% of those were in Paris.

The guide’s intention was to encourage people to travel around France so that the tires would wear out and the general interest in cars would increase and more people would buy cars (and tires).

The star ranking of restaurants started in the 40’s. The ranking concerns only the quality and refinement of the food.

During the assessment process, there are five criteria:
1) the quality of the ingredients
2) ”handcraft”: the compatibility of tastes with the actual making process
3) ”personality”: how the chef succeeds in creating something unique
4) value of money
5) the constancy of quality

The newly published guide did not present other big changes concerning Finland. Chez Dominique kept its two stars. Helsinki’s one star restaurants continue to be Postres, Demo and Luomo.