Not THE measure but certainly a measure of how a cuisine is seen. To be honest, I was amazed when I saw that Germany ranked 4th in the world. Especially after reading BFS had bemoaned both the lack of good German food restaurants in Berlin, a few years back whilst later (and rightly, I agree very much with what he’s saying), that Michelin should be thrown on the bonfire and forgotten about as a metonym of ‘good’ eating.
| Country/Region[26] | Year |  |  |  | Total | Bib Gourmand & (price cap) | Establishments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| France | 2023[27] | 29 | 75 | 526 | 630 | 419 (€32, €36 in Paris area)[28] | over 3,222 hotels and guest houses, 2,962 restaurants |
| Japan | 2023[29] | 23 | 82 | 442 | 547 | 492 [30] | 1,501 restaurants |
| Italy | 2024[32] | 13 | 40 | 342 | 395 | 257 | 1,986 restaurants |
| Germany | 2023[35] | 10 | 50 | 274 | 334 | 274 (€35) | 4287 hotels and guest houses, 2,100 restaurants |
And yet, and yet, the capital city of Berlin only had 20 of them in the last set of ratings released for 2024. The closure of “ernst” — apparently to complete now by the end of September 2024 — was announced at the end of last year and looks to be 100% symptomatic of the wider macro issues.
BFS goes on to describe what he sees as the problem, one that is affecting pretty much every eating scene that I’m aware of: all of them grappling with the lethal combination of declining guest numbers — because of declining incomes (the result of capitalist profiteering) — rising operating costs (also because of capitalist profiteering), and shortage of qualified labour (who, quite frankly, have had enough. Enough of being abused, enough of being under-valued, enough of being chronically poorly paid and unable to afford to even live, the result of capitalist profiteering ) that’s currently got London, Berlin, USA and others, all in a chokehold of converging spikes heading for their throats.
“I’m not sure people realize how bad the situation really is: the reports I’m hearing from restaurant owners are gravely concerning and it’s safe to say that pretty much everyone (with Tim Raue being the possible exception) is massively struggling. You can book a table at pretty much any restaurant in the city next week — that truly says everything. After the lively discussions about restaurants struggling during the COVID years, most restaurant owners are just tired of complaining about their problems. But mostly, everyone is just generally exhausted and running on fumes; it’s like the whole food scene is experiencing a burnout at the same time I feel a real risk of it all just imploding.”
And when it comes to the closing of ernst, Meurling adds;
“ernst will always be known as one of the most important restaurants of the 2000s in Berlin. For the opening I wrote how ernst was Berlin’s first true destination restaurant, making diners fly in for just one meal from across the world. The fact that we’re set to lose this lighthouse project is an immense loss for the city as a gastronomical destination and at this point I’m highly skeptical of anyone taking their place any time soon.”
Berlin binchōtan, via Stoke-Berlin. Another, highly anticipated new place that seems to be in a permanent state of “honestly, not long now” to open…
