Michelin stars aren't permanent

Michelin stars don't guarantee financial success

A Michelin star generally increases customer traffic for a restaurant. Still, prestige does not guarantee improved finances. According to a 2017 report, half the European restaurants with more than one star weren’t making a profit. However, losing a star can also be devastating.

Michelin awards stars (along with other distinctions)

Stars are the most prestigious of Michelin’s ratings and are often—but not exclusively—awarded to high-end, expensive restaurants. In addition to the Guide's famous stars, restaurants are also recognized for "Comfort and Quality," which includes a five-point scale.

Some chefs relinquish their Michelin stars

Five years after Marco Pierre White became the youngest chef to ever achieve a three-star rating, he also became the first chef to “return” his stars and retire. Since then, multiple chefs have followed in his footsteps and requested to be removed from the judging process.

The Michelin Guide, explained

Every year, Michelin—a tire company—transforms the culinary world through its prestigious Michelin Stars. Starting in 1900 as a guide to boost road travel, Michelin evolved into the global authority on fine dining. Today, anonymous inspectors assess restaurants across 30 countries, awarding one to three stars for quality, consistency, and creativity.

Chefs face intense pressure to maintain Michelin stars

Explore the pressure pursuing a star puts on chefs—sometimes at the expense of their mental health, and social media's impact on the culinary landscape. A conversation with Nick Kokonas, co-owner of the three-starred Alinea in Chicago, gets into the ways Michelin’s rankings affect business.

Why diners and chefs are ditching the Michelin Guide

The Michelin Guide's influence appears to be waning, indicating a shift in the perception of fine dining in contemporary culture. Trends show that diners today prefer getting recommendations from more informal networks, especially after lackluster experiences at Michelin-rated restaurants. Some chefs claim the star ratings don’t significantly influence their business, and others reject the pressure of obtaining a Michelin star altogether. Read more about the shift in this article.

Affluence largely influences where Michelin stars are awarded

Countries with high GDP are the most highly decorated with Michelin stars. As this 2024 in-depth statistical analysis notes, though, that appears to be changing, with the Guide beginning to recognize other areas of the globe.

How Michelin-starred chefs cook steak

Earning a Michelin star is no easy feat; neither is cooking a steak. This tutorial, featuring three Michelin-starred chefs, shows how the pros tackle the subtle art, walking even the most kitchen-averse eaters through the best ways to cook a great cut.

12th-century Chinese restaurants followed a rating system

Like a predecessor to today's Michelin stars, restaurants advertised their offerings and skill level based on the number of flags flown outside: a simple, one-dish diner had one; a sit-down restaurant with a proper menu had at least two; three flags was not used for superstitious reasons; four meant the chef had mastered a culinary style; five meant patrons could expect dishes from every region of China.

Winning a James Beard Award can have mixed effects

Winning the honor doesn't mean a restaurant will be set for the future. Most found that while winning gave an initial bump in the number of reservations, that pattern didn’t necessarily hold for long enough to make a real difference in the numbers.

The first street vendor to win a Michelin star was Singaporean chef Hawker Chan

The first street vendor to win a Michelin star was Singaporean chef Hawker Chan, whose food was uncharacteristically inexpensive for a Michelin-approved chef. After expanding, he lost the star, but was eventually awarded a Bib Gourmand Michelin Man symbol, which recognizes restaurants serving exceptional food at more accessible prices.

In 2008, one writer demonstrated the fickle nature of wine reviews

Robin Goldstein submitted a fake restaurant to the well-respected Wine Spectator for a competition. He created a website for the fake Milan-based business, complete with a menu of wines the magazine itself had disparaged. That didn't stop Wine Spectator from naming Goldstein's ruse among that year's winners.

Some critics say comparing chart rankings across decades is meaningless

Although Billboard’s charts are presented as objective measures of a given song’s popularity, the company’s changing methodology (alongside changes in technology and listener habits) has made weighing chart success from different eras an imperfect science.

Prices can still feel high even if inflation is slowing

This is partly because a recent spike in inflation raised prices permanently, so even though the pace of price growth has slowed, prices have still gone up for good.

Chipotle was initially started to fund another restaurant

Founder Steve Ells was a chef at Stars, a tony restaurant in San Francisco. His original plan for Chipotle—which first opened in 1993 in Denver, Colorado—was to make enough money to open a separate, higher-end restaurant.

Non-use or lapsed filings can cause a trademark to expire

Going more than three consecutive years without using a trademark can be considered abandonment—which means the trademark falls into the public domain and someone else could potentially file for the trademark. Besides non-use, not maintaining the paperwork or paying the fees can result in a terminated trademark.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

The lifetime of a star is determined by its initial mass

More massive stars burn through their fuel at ever-increasing rates, causing them to have shorter lifetimes than less massive stars, despite starting with more hydrogen to fuse. In clusters of stars that likely formed together, observing what mass stars are no longer fusing hydrogen estimates the age of the cluster.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute guarantee was discontinued after a string of delivery-driver accidents

The chain's promotional gimmick offered customers free or reduced pizzas if their pizzas weren't delivered in 30 minutes or less. That policy led to the chain's popularity, but it also led to reckless driving: In the late '80s, the National Safe Workplace claimed its drivers had the same death rate as miners. After Domino's was found liable in 1993 for nearly $79M in damages, it discontinued the policy.

US tipped employees receive the 'subminimum wage' of $2.13, unchanged since 1991

Tipped employees (anyone who makes $30+ per month in tips) are not federally entitled to a traditional minimum wage. Customers determine their earnings. The National Restaurant Association believes that if restaurant owners are forced to pay above the subminimum wage for tipped workers, restaurants could be forced to close.

Most people don’t keep their New Year’s resolutions

Studies suggest that only 9% of Americans who make resolutions keep them; 23% quit by the end of the first week of the new year, and 43% quit by the end of January.

Specific imperfections are needed to make Swiss cheese

Impurities in the milk are critical for the formation of holes in Emmental. The cleanliness at farms today could potentially eliminate the iconic characteristic, though cheesemakers are finding a solution to preserve the holes that help define the cheese.

Stagnant lids found on Mercury, Mars, and the moon prevent tectonic activity

Unlike Earth’s lithosphere, which is composed of plates dragged by convection, the outer shells of observed terrestrial bodies in the solar system are not exposed to sufficient stress to be pulled apart. Earth is expected to develop a stagnant lid in about 1.45 billion years.

The importance of volatile aroma compounds in the flavor quality of food

Processes such as air movement and heating cause food to lose aroma molecules, which studies have shown play a major role in our sense of taste. While losing these molecules to the environment leaves fewer to be processed during consumption to intensify flavor, it can also produce previously nonexistent aroma compounds or release previously trapped ones, altering or enhancing the food's flavor.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

Why can't we see Mona Lisa's eyebrows?

The world's most famous painting is missing something. And it took centuries for experts to figure out what. In this episode, August Moon investigates what happened to the Mona Lisa's eyebrows—analyzing infrared scans, tracking 500 years of restoration, and examining a forgotten copy from Leonardo's studio. But he uncovers something bigger: what we lost after the 1911 theft that has nothing to do with the painting leaving the Louvre.

Michael Jackson didn't perform at the Grammys at the height of his career

In 1984, the Grammys faced a problem: Michael Jackson, the world's biggest star and nominated for 12 awards, did not want to perform at the ceremony. Like many artists before and since, Jackson felt that the Grammys had not treated him fairly in the past. Interestingly enough, the Jackson-less telecast became the most-watched Grammys ceremony ever.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Volcanoes 'die' when their supply of magma runs out, if they are shifted away from their underlying magma reservoir, or if they get clogged by collapsing or their magma cooling back into rock.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Frank Lloyd Wright's houses are historically hard to sell because they're old, subject to local landmark commissions, and often unfashionable

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

Comedy legend Catherine O'Hara, star of 'Schitt's Creek' and 'Home Alone,' quit 'Saturday Night Live' after just one week to return to her old job.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

Poison ivy can cause rashes year-round since all parts of the plant contain urushiol, the oil that triggers our allergic response.