NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Chef Serigne Mbaye\u2019s Senegalese restaurant, Dakar NOLA, won a Michelin star Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
The recognition came mere months after Mbaye won the James Beard award for best chef in the region this June. Then, he credited New Orleans for his success. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s where I finally felt free to be fully myself, where my community embraced what I had to offer and made me feel like I belonged,\u201d Mbaye said at the June ceremony in Chicago. <\/p>\n
Emeril\u2019s keeps two stars<\/p>\n
Michelin also gave Emeril\u2019s two stars for the second year in a row on Wednesday night. The guide also reawarded Saint-Germain and Zasu with one star each.<\/p>\n
Michelin also gave out dozens of recommendations to local restaurants, including several added to its Bib Gourmand awards, which recognize restaurants with \u201caward-winning food with a terrific value.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s up from last year, and I think that\u2019s…the goal that everybody that I talk to has…is just the more the merrier when it comes to the restaurants that we get… in the guide,\u201d said E.J. Lagasse, the chef and co-owner at Emeril\u2019s, who is the son of celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse.<\/p>\n
Impact on tourism<\/p>\n
Kelly Schulz, senior vice president of communications at New Orleans & Company, said the city\u2019s success with Michelin helps the rest of the world see what New Orleanians already know: the city has great food.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Michelin brand gives us an added level of endorsement, third-party credibility, international expertise that is really important,\u201d Schulz said. <\/p>\n
She added that since the first Michelin guide of the South last year, chefs have noted impacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard a few of them anecdotally say that their restaurant is now… it\u2019s much harder to get reservations,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have seen people come from other countries specifically to try their restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Celebrating a family legacy<\/p>\n
Lagasse said keeping Emeril\u2019s two stars is as much about celebrating his family\u2019s legacy as it is about bringing it into the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in the same spot, the same bricks for 36 years,\u201d he said in an interview outside of the restaurant Thursday afternoon. \u201cOur goal is to…at least do 36 more, and that\u2019s…the mindset that we come in with every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schulz said that despite New Orleans\u2019 relatively small population compared to cities in its region, it \u201c(punches) above (its) weight\u201d when it comes to culture. She said that as tourists travel to cities based on Michelin recognition, these wins help make New Orleans their next choice.<\/p>\n
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.<\/p>\n
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WVUE. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Chef Serigne Mbaye\u2019s Senegalese restaurant, Dakar NOLA, won a Michelin star Wednesday night. The recognition came mere months after Mbaye won the James Beard award for best chef in the region this June. Then, he credited New Orleans for his success. \u201cIt\u2019s where I finally felt free to be fully myself,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[2348,4301,4299,4302,4300,40692],"class_list":["post-60521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-louisiana","tag-louisiana","tag-louisiana-dining","tag-louisiana-food","tag-louisiana-grocery-stores","tag-louisiana-restaurants","tag-vertical"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117489842509557663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}