Michelin has dropped one of its potential awards for restaurants.
The "Green Star" awarded to sustainable restaurants with a focus on local ingredients has been eliminated, reports food journalist Nicholas Gill. Although the Michelin Guide has not officially commented on the removal of Green Stars, Gill noticed that they have been removed from the Guide's website and search filters. I checked the two Texas Green Star recipients, Dai Due and Emmer & Rye in Austin, and they have both had their Green Stars stripped from their profiles.
Why cut Green Stars? Gill says restaurants' sustainability efforts were self-reported, without any independent fact checking. "It became common knowledge among restaurants that they could get a green star by simply sending in a vague sustainability report each year, and these were traded around and adapted to individual restaurants....Nothing in these reports was ever verified by Michelin."
The Michelin awards remaining are ordinary stars (on a scale of one to three), a Bib Gourmand for budget-friendly dining (according to Michelin's warped definition of "budget-friendly"), and a "recommended" listing without stars or other icons, for honorable mention restaurants. The newest Texas guide will be announced on October 28.
Source: New Worlder: Michelin is Quietly Dropping its Green Stars