Winning a Michelin star is a double-edged sword – not all restaurants are excited

As the hospitality industry is poised ready for the announcement of the new Michelin stars for Great Britain and Ireland taking place this evening in Glasgow, some of those waiting for word admit to having mixed feelings. The 125-year old publication, which has evolved from a French motoring journal to the world’s handbook for where to eat, wields a strange power over restaurants. Featuring in the guide or earning one or more of its prestigious stars has become the pursuit – obsession even – of many chefs. But achievement brings new pressures. Success often comes at a price.

In 2024, a study by University College London found that 40 per cent of restaurants with a Michelin star ceased trading within five years of receiving it. Of course, there are multiple factors which may have contributed to those closures but at the very least the stats suggest that the awards are something of a double-edged sword.

One restaurant owner, whose venue is located on the Kent coast and who prefers not to be named, says she is “half-excited and half-scared” by the prospect of receiving a Michelin star. The small, family-run business, which has already been featured in the guide, is being tipped to go further this year.

“Obviously it would be a great honour to see our team’s hard work recognised like that and to be in the same conversation as some of the great restaurants in the world,” she says. “But we are a small restaurant; we only have so much space. More bookings would be great, but where do we put them? Do we have enough staff, even, to cover the busier nights?”

The same owner is concerned that the restaurant’s rent will go up if it is awarded a star. “I worry the landlord might make assumptions. How do we offset that raised cost without putting our prices up? I don’t want to do that,” she says. She also fears that bloggers and influencers may “take liberties” with requests for complimentary meals.

Diner perception

According to Paul Foster, chef-owner of Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon – which held a Michelin star from 2018 until it was rescinded in 2024 – modern opinions of the guide are mixed. He believes that, while many chefs still aspire to receive and maintain a star, there is also a perception amongst the dining public that Michelin-starred eateries are elitist.

Foster feels that, although the guide has expanded the range and nature of the establishments to which it has awarded stars in recent years, some people associate these restaurants with “stiff waiters, small portions, expensive prices and a place that feels unapproachable.” He is quick to clarify that he doesn’t share this view. “I’ve never gone hungry at a Michelin-starred restaurant,” he says, but he is aware these misconceptions risk alienating potential customers.

There are, however, some diners who do want the pomp and ceremony traditionally associated with Michelin-starred venues, Foster points out. “We had customers who might have travelled far and wide [to visit Salt] and then they’d knock our decor [because it wasn’t fancy enough],” he says.

As to why Salt lost its Michelin star, Foster doesn’t care to speculate, but he insists he “never lost faith in the cooking.”

Identity crisis

David Moore, the chef-owner of Pied à Terre, the longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant in London, believes the awards are still the “definitive foodie accolade”. Presented with the UCL study, he counters that it “shows 60 per cent of restaurants that get a star do survive five or more years and go on to have a very successful lifespan.”

But Moore concedes that, for some restaurants, the achievement can be overwhelming, confusing and lead to an identity crisis. “The problem [...] is that there is no guide to the Michelin Guide.” There is no easy-access advice on what Michelin is looking for, only “conjecture”, so restaurants can tie themselves in knots, trying to upgrade the decor or introduce experimental menu updates that belie the initial offering which got them the star in the first place.

“If you get a star and change nothing, you’ve already hit the jackpot,” says Moore. “What you’re doing is working.” Chefs “up the ante, thinking they need to in order to keep the star”, but they would be better served, he suggests, continuing to do what they were doing. And, with a star to their names, they should find there’s “less resistance to price”, meaning that diners are more willing to shell out for their meal.

Staff retention

Since the Michelin Guide awards stars to restaurants rather than individual chefs, it acknowledges that the overall dining experience is down to a collective effort between the kitchen team and front-of-house.

That may be so, says chef and author Jameson Stocks, but the politics of pay is likely to move swiftly up the agenda when a restaurant is awarded a star, with certain staff more inclined to argue the case for a rise in salary.

Stocks, who trained at Marco Pierre White’s formerly three Michelin-starred Oak Room in London’s Piccadilly, says that some members within a kitchen team might think: “I’ve contributed to earning or maintaining a star, perhaps it’s time to move on, or leverage this for better compensation, or a higher level within my organisation.”

Stocks does not dispute that staff should be paid fairly and proportionately to a restaurant’s success. However, he is sympathetic to restaurant owners who face “elevated expectations” from staff immediately after receiving some positive reviews.

A Michelin star is definitely an accomplishment, he says, but it is not an angel investor. Whether a restaurant can sustainably support pay rises fundamentally depends on “bums on seats, rather than a plaque above the door.”

If you can’t stand the heat…

Maintaining a Michelin star can bring psychological pressures, too. A commis chef, who worked in a gastropub in Newcastle that received a Michelin star, tells me: “It changed the dynamic of the kitchen completely. The [head] chef became far less patient, far less calm.”

According to a study by workforce management software firm Quinyx, nearly two-thirds of UK hospitality workers (65 per cent) have felt stressed at work, with three-quarters (75 per cent) of them being contacted by their bosses outside of their shifts via WhatsApp or social media.

But staff retention is the “holy grail” in hospitality, says Moore. “Aggressive kitchens tend to have high staff turnover,” he warns, adding that a happy workforce can be “what makes the service the hundredth of a second faster and better from a customer’s perspective.”

The bottom line

For Stocks, while awards are certainly nice to have and he still views a Michelin star as the “pinnacle of achievement” in cooking terms, he feels it has become “a pursuit for the purist rather than the businessman.”

There will always be a market for fine dining insofar as wealthy people will always exist, but within the context of the cost-of-living crisis, he suggests that restaurants “that want to make any money” should remain focused on appealing to the widest possible range of consumers. “I don’t think people look in the Michelin Guide before they go out as much as they possibly did in the past,” he adds. “People tend to rely more on word of mouth. Social media can make or break a restaurant as quickly as earning or losing a star now!”

Ultimately, in 2025 it seems that a Michelin star is neither a silver bullet nor a kiss of death for a restaurant. It’s still seen as a signifier of great food, but just as there are many more talented actors than there are Oscar winners, there are many excellent places that don’t have a star.

Michelin did not respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment.