New Orleans has waited a long time to see which local restaurants could rise to the level of Michelin Stars. In the end, the answer came a bit sooner than anticipated.
It also came with some surprises, as one of the biggest names in New Orleans dining earned a remarkable two Michelin Stars, a first for the entire South, and an under-the-radar Mid-City restaurant was put on the map with its own Star.
The Michelin Guide was set to reveal the results of its new regional guide for the American South, including Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, on Monday night at an awards ceremony in Greenville, South Carolina.
But hours earlier, local chefs gathered for the event were already getting congratulatory texts and emails from friends around the country.
A press release detailing the winners was released Monday morning, and picked up by multiple news services. Michelin has not officially confirmed the results.
In the press release, three New Orleans restaurants earned Michelin Stars, including Emeril’s Restaurant with two stars and Saint-Germain and Zasu, each with one star.
It is exceedingly rare for restaurants to debut in a Michelin Guide above the one star level.
In the kitchen at Emeril’s Restaurant (from left), Delery Knoll, Emilie Van Dyke, Riley McDonell and chef E.J. Lagasse work together on a dish. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Michelin Stars are a globally recognized standard for excellence in the culinary world, awarded on rising scale of one to three. Michelin’s anonymous reviewers, dubbed inspectors, determine if they feel a restaurant deserves a star rating, and how many.
Emeril’s in downtown New Orleans and Saint-Germain in the Bywater are both tasting menu restaurants that have garnered previous high-profile praise. Given their style and ambition, they were frontrunners in predictions of which restaurants could land stars.
Zasu is a small, upscale restaurant for fine dining in Mid-City. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Zasu, meanwhile, is a small, upscale bistro in Mid-City that arrives on the Michelin Star list as more of a surprise.
Many other New Orleans restaurants received Michelin recognition at other levels. One is Bib Gourmand, an award for what Michelin calls “simpler style of cooking” at the “best value for money restaurants.”
And then there are “recommended” restaurants, which are endorsed by Michelin but not at the star level or with the value proposition of a Bib Gourmand winner.
Roast beef po-boys are part of the traditional menu at Parkway Bakery & Tavern.
New Orleans has 11 Bib Gourmand restaurants, running the gamut from the new and modern to deeply old school New Orleans. They are:
- Acamaya (modern Mexican)
- Cochon (modern Cajun)
- Cochon Butcher (sandwiches and charcuterie)
- Domilise’s Po-Boys & Bar (po-boys)
- Dooky Chase’s Restaurant (Creole)
- Hungry Eyes (modern eclectic)
- LUFU NOLA (Indian)
- Mister Mao (pan Asian)
- Parkway Bakery & Tavern (po-boys)
- Saba (modern Israeli)
- Turkey and the Wolf (sandwiches)
The 18 New Orleans Michelin recommended restaurants show a similarly broad range of styles and price points. The recommended restaurants are:
- 34 Restaurant & Bar (modern Portuguese)
- Addis NOLA (Ethiopian)
- Atchafalaya (contemporary Creole)
- August (contemporary Creole)
- Clancy’s (Creole)
- Compère Lapin (modern Caribbean)
- Dakar NOLA (modern Senegalese tasting menu)
- Galatoire’s (French Creole)
- Herbsaint (modern American/Louisiana)
- Killer Po-boys (sandwiches)
- The Kingsway (pan Asian tasting menu)
- La Petite Grocery (contemporary Creole)
- Molly’s Rise and Shine (breakfast)
- Osteria Lupo (regional Italian)
- Patois (contemporary Creole)
- Pêche Seafood Grill (seafood)
- Saffron NOLA (upscale Indian)
- Willie Mae’s NOLA (Creole)
New Orleans’ new stars
This new Michelin Guide American South covers restaurants in a six-state area: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Atlanta restaurants, which Michelin has covered since 2023, are also now grouped in this guide.
It includes 228 restaurants total, and 19 restaurants with stars, plus five more with Michelin’s Green Star award for environmental sustainability.
E.J. Lagasse, chef and co-owner of Emeril’s Restaurant in New Orleans, directs a tasting menu at his family’s restaurant. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Emeril’s is the only restaurant in the region with a two-star rating, and one of just 35 across the country with two stars, which Michelin says denotes “excellent cooking, worth a detour.”
The dining room at Saint-Germain is a small, casual setting for a 10-course tasting menu in the Bywater. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Emeril’s was started by namesake Emeril Lagasse in 1990, immediately turning heads as a new style of New Orleans cuisine and propelling his rise as a celebrity chef. In 2023, son E.J. Lagasse joined the restaurant as chef and steered its transformation into a more elegant tasting menu model. This menu is an exquisitely wrought ode to Louisiana flavors and food heritage.
Michelin’s reviewers said his “determination is palpable as he charts a new course, bringing contemporary refinement and vibrant originality to the fore” and praised cooking that “bursts with personality and class and never at the cost of flavor.”
The restaurant’s revamp also saw the transformation of its bar into the Wine Bar at Emeril’s, with a separate a la carte menu and more casual approach.
Michelin also awarded E.J. Lagasse its region-wide Young Chef honor in this inaugural guide.
Chefs Blake Aguillard (left) and Trey Smith at Saint-Germain.
Saint-Germain and Zasu
Saint-Germain and Zasu are each much smaller restaurants that now join the Michelin Star Club.
Saint-Germain was started in 2018 by co-chefs Trey Smith and Blake Aguillard with business partner Drew Delaughter in an old shotgun house on St. Claude Avenue that’s easy to miss. The sign for the previous restaurant, a pizzeria, is still more prominent than it’s own.
“The old adage about not judging a book by its cover couldn’t be more apt for this little restaurant in Bywater,” Michelin’s reviewers wrote.
Its 10-course tasting menu is a dissertation on creative culinary technique, with aging, preserving and fermentation displayed in dishes that frame familiar ingredients in revealing new ways.
While the dining room has just a handful of tables, the restaurant doubles as a wine bar with an outdoor patio available for drinks only.
Chef Sue Zemanick, left, works in the kitchen of her New Orleans restaurant Zasu in 2019.
Zasu was opened on New Year’s Eve in 2018 by chef Sue Zemanick, who had earned a following and previous awards as the longtime chef at Gautreau’s Restaurant and a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef.”
Zasu is jewel-box small, and the kind of place people return to because they crave certain dishes and because they trust the menu through its perpetual changes. Fish is a specialty, and so are pierogi, inspired by the chef’s family roots.
Michelin’s reviewers call Zasu an “elegant oasis” with a “tightly edited” menu “blending local flavors with French techniques.”
Louisiana and Gulf Coast
While 32 New Orleans restaurants can now claim some level of Michelin-recognition, the selections will surely ignite debate in this food-obsessed city over which made the cut, and which didn’t.
For instance, the inaugural guide does not include establishments from any branch of the Brennan family, among the most prominent names in New Orleans dining.
Chef Paul Chauvin Dupré and his wife and co owner Lindsay Dupré at their restaurant Elsie’s Plate and Pie at 3145 Government St, Baton Rouge.
Outside of New Orleans, the selections were sparse. There are none from the restaurant-rich suburbs, and across the rest of Louisiana only two restaurants made the “recommended” list — Elsie’s Plate & Pie in Baton Rouge and St. Francisville Inn & Restaurant in St. Francisville.
Vestige is a tasting menu restaurant in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
On the Gulf Coast, The Noble South in downtown Mobile won a Bib Gourmand award, while in coastal Mississippi White Pillars in Biloxi and the tasting menu restaurant Vestige in Ocean Springs got “recommended” status.
How Michelin works
Michelin Stars and reviews were created a century ago by the French tire company of the same name. They were a European institution until relatively recently, when a global expansion began.
The first U.S. guide, for New York, appeared in 2005, and since then its range has been gradually expanding one state or group of cities at a time.
The brand now partners with city and state tourism agencies and other groups to help finance its work. It selects areas to expand coverage based on this backing and its own assessment that an area has enough destination-worthy restaurants.
That practice has drawn some criticism in the industry, though Michelin has maintained that once it enters a market, its culinary judgments and editorial decisions remain independent.
New Orleans & Co., the city’s tourism sales and market agency, and the Louisiana Office of Tourism are two of the local groups from the region that partnered with Michelin on the new guide, providing financial support for its entry in the market, a practice that’s become standard as Michelin has expanded in the U.S.
The Michelin Guide explains that restaurants are assessed for stars on five criteria: “quality products; the harmony of flavors; the mastery of cooking techniques; the voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; consistency between each visit and throughout the menu.”
All the other restaurants in other states included in the new American South guide received one-star ratings. These are Counter in Charlotte, North Carolina; Malagón Mercado y Taperia, Vern’s and Wild Common, all in Charleston, South Carolina; Scoundrel in Greenville, South Carolina; and Baston, Locust and the Catbird Seat, all in Nashville, Tennessee.
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