After a record number of new Michelin stars were awarded in the UK Guide 2020, we spoke to the winners about how it feels to have a place on the notorious list.
“It’s amazing, I’m really blown away. My feet aren’t touching the floor, I don’t really know what’s going on.”
“I don’t think you really expect it, I really really wanted to achieve it but whether or not that would happen or not you never really know I think, unless you get told before and I definitely didn’t.”
“I don’t know what this feeling feels like, to see all the chefs that I admire so much and have worked so hard… I just can’t wait to see my guys, to see my team”
“Feels amazing, I didn’t expect it at all, just came over here for the weekend…”
The chef said it was a team effort. “It’s for them as much as it is for me, they all work so hard, all the staff, they work so hard just to be better everyday.”
“Ireland hasn’t had a new two star restaurant for sixteen or seventeen years, and to have two in one go is amazing for the country. It’s amazing.”
His message to any chefs striving for the stars? “Keep going. Keep doing what you’re doing, even the days when you feel like not going.”
“I was very nervous about even getting one, we’ve only been open for four and a half months so when we got the invite I cried for sure. It’s just a hell of a team effort. We have an amazing team behind us, obviously my wife is sitting right next to me.”
“Getting a Michelin star has been a dream since I was a little boy, to get two is… I don’t know what to say, it’s crazy.”
His restaurant team, he said, was watching the stream live. “They’re all very very happy,” he said.
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The chef at the only new three star restaurant said: “it’s amazing, for all of us, not just for me. With Gagnaire, the team, we’re all very pleased.
He said that Pierre Gagnaire was on a plane at the time of the announcement – so it was unbeknown to him that he had won the guide’s top accolade.
Asked what it takes to get three Michelin stars, he said: “I have no idea. Ask the Michelin Guide. We work hard everyday, we get the best products, we try to get the best menus, we taste and we change until we’re happy, and then the season’s over and we start a new menu.”
“The experience of monsieur Gagnaire, 50 years in the trade and more, other Michelin star restaurants, I have access to so many resources. You have to have this team, this body which you can rely on and that makes great things happen.”
“It was a long-time coming.”
“I got an email invitation on Friday. But then just I s**t myself that they might have brought back the Rising Star and that would be my luck, wouldn’t it? But we actually got it, so I’m pretty happy.”
On whether he had been expecting it, the chef said: “Don’t get me wrong, every chef works kind of towards it, I guess, but it wasn’t the be all and end all. We’ve only been open 8 months, it was a tough opening and to be honest, I didn’t think it would happen, so I’m fucking happy that it has”
Asked whether he thinks there's such a thing as a "winning formula" for Michelin stars, the chef said: "I just think consistency and just believe in what you’re doing. Stick to your guns. And the most important thing is your team, having a good team behind you.
"Wherever I’ve gone, stupidly enough they follow me and so the stars come which is a testament to their hard work and dedication.”
The chef said he got his invitation five weeks ago.
"So it was a bit of a like ‘am I being invited because I’ve had two before or whatever?’ It was a bit of
