Mouthing Off | 50 Best? The Michelin Guide? I’m over them. It’s one popularity contest after the other

The Michelin Guide and the 50 Best lists involve no objective, measurable criteria – instead, they favour places backed by deep pockets

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The Michelin Man during the unveiling of the 2022 Michelin Guide Dubai. The guide and the 50 Best lists involve no objective, measurable criteria – instead, they favour places backed by deep pockets, columnist Andrew Sun argues. Photo: AFP

Published: 7:45am, 14 Mar 2025Updated: 7:49am, 14 Mar 2025

I am primarily a food writer, but I consider myself quite a movie guy too. As such, I was up bright and early in Hong Kong on March 3 to watch the entire 97th Academy Awards, aka the Oscars ceremony, which lasted over three-and-a-half hours.

Kudos to the small indie film Anora for stealing several of the night’s major awards, including best director and best picture. It is a good film, but, to be honest I do not think it was the best or the most compelling movie produced last year. However, I also do not take too seriously the decrees of an industry-led event whose main goal is to drive promotion and ticket sales.

Speaking of which, the 2025 Michelin Guide for Hong Kong and Macau was unveiled this week.

For most food writers, bloggers, Instagrammers and hospitality industry workers, the day of a new Michelin guide is one they eagerly anticipate. Everyone wants to be the first to report on who made it in and who fell off. Everyone also wants to attend the parties and cocktail events with all the chefs and their newly minted stars.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024 awardees on stage at the Wynn Las Vegas. Photo: Camila Almeida

Everyone except maybe me. I am so over these self-aggrandised rankings delivered by random arbiters of the restaurant industry. It is not just the Michelin-star ratings, but the World’s and Asia’s 50 Best lists too – the latter to be announced on March 25 in Seoul, South Korea.

After years of trying to rationalise the whys and wherefores of who and what makes these lists, I have decided – or more precisely, accepted – that they involve no objective, measurable criteria. It is all a popularity contest.