The Brief<\/p>\n
The Michelin Guide is hosting its first-ever Southwest awards ceremony in Las Vegas, making Arizona restaurants eligible for Michelin stars for the first time.<\/p>\n
Winning a Michelin star brings national prestige and can boost a restaurant’s sales by up to 80%, driving local economic growth and hiring.<\/p>\n
Culinary advocates and industry leaders say the recognition highlights the high quality of local chefs, produce, and dining spots across Arizona.<\/p>\n
PHOENIX – Anyone in Arizona will tell people that the state’s food scene is booming.<\/p>\n
“Just how impressive our chefs are, and how they utilize so many different parts of the farmers, the local produce, meat,” said Jennifer Baluch, a food influencer with the Instagram page “TastesOfAz.”<\/p>\n
But with the world-renowned Michelin Guide announcing its first-ever awards ceremony for the country’s Southwest region, the state’s restaurants are now eligible for an honor that could be life-changing.<\/p>\n
“This is the best of the best,” said Steve Chucri, president and CEO of the Arizona Restaurant Association. “This is the highest bar to reach in our industry.”<\/p>\n
“I think it’s such an iconic landmark in the food scene,” Baluch said. “So once you see that red square outside of a restaurant, you know the level of quality of food, the level of expertise.”<\/p>\n
Why you should care<\/p>\n
A Michelin star brings great prestige to any restaurant it’s awarded to.<\/p>\n
“They’re looking at the mastery of your technique, the consistency of your food,” Chucri said. “The spirit of the chef actually shining through in the food that they serve.”<\/p>\n
It can also give the surrounding city a massive economic boost.<\/p>\n
“When you get this type of recognition, statistically and historically, you can see a huge jump in sales, 80% in some cases,” Chucri said.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying<\/p>\n
While it won’t be clear which Arizona restaurants will make the cut until the awards are announced at the Las Vegas ceremony Wednesday night, those in the food scene say the possibility alone is a win.<\/p>\n
“To have tourism and other key players in our state involved in raising our hand and trumpeting all that Arizona has by way of culinary talent… That’s a job well done for everybody,” Chucri said.<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
The Michelin Guide will live stream the awards ceremony on its YouTube channel at 8:15 tonight from Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
The Source<\/p>\n
Information in this report was gathered from food influencer Jennifer Baluch and Arizona Restaurant Association President and CEO Steve Chucri.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Brief The Michelin Guide is hosting its first-ever Southwest awards ceremony in Las Vegas, making Arizona restaurants eligible for Michelin stars for the first time. Winning a Michelin star brings national prestige and can boost a restaurant’s sales by up to 80%, driving local economic growth and hiring. Culinary advocates and industry leaders say<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[3323,3321,3319,3322,3320,9326,9328,9329,116,9327],"class_list":["post-7964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arizona","tag-arizona","tag-arizona-dining","tag-arizona-food","tag-arizona-grocery-stores","tag-arizona-restaurants","tag-awards-ceremony","tag-jennifer-baluch","tag-local-produce","tag-michelin-guide","tag-steve-chucri"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117267070239290757","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964","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=7964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}