Three Stars: Inside the Michelin Guide

If you’re any kind of foodie, you’ve probably heard of the Michelin Guide, that little red book that can make or break a culinary career.

It was first published in 1900, with the purpose of helping drivers touring France to maintain their cars, locate garages and find places to stay — and it also suggested restaurants where they could eat along the way.

In the 1920s, its focus shifted to the latter, and in 1932 it began rating establishments, awarding them up to three stars. And while the Michelin guide is produced by critics, it’s also not without critics of its own. It has been attacked for its secretive evaluation process and the fact that its reviewers remain unknown.

But Three Stars, a 2010 documentary by Lutz Hachmeister (The Enemy Within, The Goebbels Experiment) that opens in Montreal tomorrow, is not about the Michelin Guide. It’s about the chefs behind the restaurants that have received the coveted rating.

Hachmeister turns his camera on nine chefs from around the world, exploring what their craft — and their Michelin stars — mean to them. The pressures of gaining and, more important, losing a star have driven many chefs to hang up in their aprons and, for Frenchman Bernard Loiseau, to take his own life.

Following these chefs through their day-to-day activities, we are given an insider’s peek into the long hours, the high turnover, the brigades of cooks at their sides and the reality that, even at the top of their game, there is little financial gain unless they never stop.

Take French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Known for his Eurasian fusion cuisine, he’s now based in New York. Among his eight restaurants there (and four others worldwide) is his three-star jewel, Jean-Georges. Ahead of the rest, he’s literally turned his name into a brand. He cares about his stars, and he’s used them to build an empire.

Then there’s René Redzepi from Copenhagen’s Noma. With two Michelin stars and a restaurant that uses Scandinavian products exclusively, he’s currently considered the best chef in the world. Redzepi’s not worried about his star status but about Noma losing its focus. His aim is to be creative and innovative, and he doesn’t want the drive for that third star to eclipse the importance of his food, like it has for other chefs.

Juan Mari Arzak from the three-star restaurant Arzak in San Sebastián has his own theory. “As a member of the avant garde,” he says in the film, “you have to think like a child. Children always do new things and have new abilities. Stop thinking like that and you’re no longer avant garde.” He has a large room that he calls the “idea bank,” in which he stores 1,500 stored ingredients to play with.

Although their restaurants and cuisine styles differ, Three Stars makes it clear that the featured chefs are all extremely passionate about their craft and can’t help but feel pressured to perform and improve their reputations — Michelin stars bring them not only clients, but international recognition.

Although this documentary drags on at times and seems slightly inconclusive, food lovers and food nerds will be sated by the visuals alone. The universal sentiment is clear: Michelin stars or not, you really have to love to cook to make it in the restaurant world.■

Three Stars opens Friday, Aug. 10 at Cinéma du Parc