In June 2024, the MICHELIN Guide announced that it is expanding its renowned culinary reviews to Doha, Qatar. The prestigious Guide revealed that its independent, anonymous inspectors have been thoroughly exploring Doha in preparation for selecting the city’s most outstanding dining venues.
The selection will showcase the best of Doha’s dining scene and spotlight its talented chefs and teams, embracing their passion, creativity, and respect for local culinary traditions. Doha is the third city in the Middle East with soon-to-be published MICHELIN Guides, following Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
‘These past few years, our MICHELIN inspectors have been keeping a watchful eye on Doha’s culinary evolution and continue to relish the wonderful diversity that this fast-paced city has to offer,’ said the International Director of the MICHELIN Guides, Gwendal Poullennec. ‘From the continually changing skyline of gravity-defying hotels to the rich array of restaurants representing cuisines from all continents, they have comprehensively reviewed the nation’s top eateries. Whether enjoying coffee on the Corniche, wandering around The Pearl Island, having lunch by the waterside in Lusail, or dining after a mesmerising visit to the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) or in the dynamic, regenerated Msheireb Downtown Doha, our inspectors have truly experienced it all.
‘Middle Eastern, Japanese, Peruvian, or fused Nikkei style, Indian and Chinese to name a few, the choice here is endless and doubtlessly certain to appeal to the avid global gastronomic traveller looking for a memorable culinary experience,’ Poullennec added.
The arrival of the MICHELIN Guide in Doha is supported by Qatar Tourism (QT). Its Chairman, HE Saad Bin Ali Al Kharji, said, ‘The arrival of the MICHELIN Guide in Doha underscores Qatar’s standing as a rapidly emerging global culinary destination. It will enable travellers to better explore the breadth of our culinary and hospitality options, helping to ensure that they have well-rounded stays with memorable experiences. This inclusion is also a tribute to the strong cadre of culinary talent that Doha has attracted, who see in our capital and its ambitions a commitment to luxury and quality, which enables their professional creativity and advancement.’
The MICHELIN Guide Methodology
The selection will follow MICHELIN’s historic method based on five universal criteria to ensure consistency between each selection, including:
• The quality of the ingredients.
• The mastery of cooking techniques.
• The harmony of flavours.
• The personality of the cuisine.
• The consistency both over time and through the menu as a whole.
The MICHELIN Guide Restaurant Selection
The MICHELIN Guide conveys its restaurant reviews through an extensive system of distinctions, which are awarded to special restaurants within its full selection. The most famous distinctions are its globally renowned MICHELIN Stars awarded to the restaurant offering the best culinary experiences. One MICHELIN Star is awarded to restaurants for ‘high-quality cooking that is worth a stop,’ two MICHELIN Stars for ‘excellent cooking that is worth a detour,’ and three MICHELIN Stars for ‘exceptional cuisine that is worth a special journey.’
Alongside the coveted Star ratings, the selection also includes the popular Bib Gourmand category, a distinction awarded to restaurants that provide good quality food at a moderate price.
The full restaurant selection of the MICHELIN Guide Doha 2025 will be unveiled at a special event to be held in the last quarter of 2024. It will be available exclusively in digital format on all the Guide’s interfaces: website, mobile applications, and social networks. It will join the global MICHELIN Guide restaurant and hotel selections to be found for free on its digital platforms.
The history of the MICHELIN Star rating system
As many true food lovers and gourmets will know, the MICHELIN Star rating system is a prestigious and internationally recognised guide for ranking fine dining establishments. But how did it start and who were the ‘inventors’ of this system?
The MICHELIN Guide was created in 1900 by the Michelin tyre company to support the growth of automobile mobility. The story starts with the invention and development of internal combustion engines and the first practical motorcars. This was mainly in Germany (notably with Herren Benz, Daimler and Maybach) and in France similarly with Monsieur Citroën and the two brothers André and Edouard Michelin, of the French, now global, tyre company. All these pioneers were great visionaries and engineers, as were many also at work in Italy, the UK and the US, but Citroën and Michelin (who later bought out Citroën) seemed to have a flair for publicity and marketing. For example, Citroën had its name hugely displayed on the Eiffel Tower, visible to literally everybody in Paris for over 10 years during the 1920s and 30s, and MICHELIN set to work on multiple projects with the aim of encouraging the wider use of this new means of transport.
One of the main impediments to the widespread adoption of petrol cars was range anxiety (there weren’t many petrol stations at the time and horses could go on forever, catching a snack anytime on the roadside!). So, MICHELIN published maps and travel guides and also their Guide to restaurants, all in a bid to get people to use their cars more and also of course to wear out their tyres.
How important are Michelin Stars?
No doubt, restaurants that receive a MICHELIN Star rating are filled with pride, gain prestige, and usually get an increase in exposure and business. In today’s culinary industry, there’s a reverence for the iconic MICHELIN Star rating system. Some restaurateurs go so far as to say it’s the only rating that matters because it’s authentic since MICHELIN inspectors are among the few who remain completely anonymous when reviewing a restaurant.
While the MICHELIN Guide awards its stars to restaurants rather than individual chefs, and there are no Michelin-starred restaurants yet in Qatar because MICHELIN has only now started to cover the Gulf states, there are many executive chefs operating in Doha who have created and run MICHELIN-starred restaurants in other countries. Indeed there are chefs in Qatar whose restaurants have the highest tally of MICHELIN Stars of any living chef in the world. See Dining with Celebrity Chefs on marhaba.qa
There are other food/restaurant review systems in different countries which award stars (usually from 1 to 5) but everyone seems to defer to the professionalism of the MICHELIN system. It operates in about 30 countries in the world, mainly in Europe, the US and Japan. It has recently began to operate in Asia and the Middle East.
And MICHELIN itself is not standing still; for example, the Bib Gourmand, named after Bibendum or Bib, commonly known as the ‘Michelin Man’, the official mascot of the Michelin tyre company, is an award for excellent restaurants (and hotels), which charge reasonable prices. Bibendum originates from the slogan Nunc est bibendum, meaning “Now is the time to drink”, and is taken from Horace’s Odes. And the new MICHELIN Green Star is awarded to restaurants leading the way in sustainable practices and eco-friendly commitments.
Author: Ola Diab
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