Milwaukee has a shot at adding Michelin to the growing list of culinary accolades its dining scene has received in recent years.

That’s because the prestigious Michelin Guide is now, for the very first time, considering restaurants in Milwaukee for inclusion in its new six-city American Great Lakes edition, which also includes Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, with the inaugural selections set to be revealed in 2027.

Officials from Michelin and Visit Milwaukee announced the launch of the new regional guide at a press conference Wednesday morning at the Milwaukee Art Museum. They were joined by the heads of the other five cities’ destination marketing organizations, who, with Visit Milwaukee, all collaborated to bring Michelin to the region.

“This is a transformational moment for Milwaukee,” said Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of Visit Milwaukee. “A Michelin star can change lives. It can elevate chefs, energize neighborhoods, and bring global attention to a city. Today, Milwaukee steps onto that global stage, and the world is about to discover what we have known all along: Milwaukee is one of America’s great food cities.”

Michelin’s anonymous inspectors are already on the ground in the six Great Lakes cities evaluating restaurants on rigorous criteria to be selected for the guide and, if they’re extra lucky, to receive a Michelin Star, a Bib Gourmand — recognizing restaurants that offer good quality food for a good value — or Green Stars for mindful gastronomy.

In keeping with Michelin’s famously secretive evaluation process, the number of restaurants that will be selected for the new Great Lakes guide, if any, will be kept under wraps until the full listing is revealed at an awards ceremony in 2027. Details on the event are yet to be announced.

A Michelin rating is considered a lifetime achievement for recipient chefs and restaurateurs, and represents the crème de la crème of dining recommendations for local foodies and international travelers alike. First published in France in 1900 by French tire company Michelin, the guide now rates tens of thousand of hotels and restaurants in 60 destinations worldwide. More than 30 million Michelin Guides have been sold worldwide, according to the company’s website. The guide is also available through Michelin’s website and mobile app.

Michelin announced its first North American Guide in 2005 for New York. San Fransisco was added in 2007, then Chicago in 2011 and Washington D.C. in 2017. The guide has since expanded to cover the entire state of California, Florida, Toronto, Vancouver, Colorado, Atlanta, Mexico, Texas, Québec, and starting just last year, the American South, Boston, Philadelphia and the Southwest.

“The continuous growth of the gastronomic scene across (the Great Lakes) region proves the importance of their standing as a global destination for gourmets from near and far,” said Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide, during the press conference Wednesday.

Poullennec cited a recent study that found that 74% of travelers considers the presence of the Michelin Guide in the destination to be a key factor when choosing a destination worth traveling for. Of that group, 76% are prepared to extend their stay in that destination to try restaurants recommended by Michelin.

Michelin’s inspectors are hospitality and restaurant professionals who are employed full-time by Michelin to independently assess the quality of restaurants based on five standard criteria: product quality; mastery of cooking techniques; harmony of flavors; the personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; and consistency over time and across the entire menu. Restaurants can be selected for the guide without receiving the higher honor of a Star or Bib Gourmand, but selected restaurants have the benefit of being on inspectors’ radars for the chance to receive other awards in the future, according to Michelin’s website.

A globally consistent, standardized selection process means the Michelin name carries the same weight in Paris or New York as it does in Detroit or Cleveland, said Poullennec.

“That’s what matters for international travelers but also local people,” he said. “With the Michelin Guide, we tend to think about international or highly discerning food and travel lovers. Let’s never forget that the first customers of the restaurants are the local people, and quite often they are the ones pulling up the expectations in terms of level of quality because they come again and again.”

He said expanding across the U.S. is a top priority for the Michelin Guide as the country remains a top-tier global tourism destination. When considering new destinations to be part of its selections, Micheline looks at the quality and diversity of restaurants in the market currently as well as future potential.

Building on momentum in local culinary tourism

Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s reputation for culinary excellence has risen to national acclaim in recent years with numerous annual nominations — and a handful of awards — from the James Beard Foundation; write ups in the New York Times, Eater, Bon Appétit and Condé Nast; and most notably, a front-and-center spot on Season 21 of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” which was filmed mostly in Milwaukee and Madison and premiered in March 2024.

It was just as the airing of Top Chef Wisconsin was coming to a close that early efforts to bring Michelin to the Great Lakes region were set in motion, Visit Milwaukee’s Williams-Smith told BizTimes Wednesday, calling it “the perfect segue into the next iteration of what Milwaukee’s culinary scene can look forward to.”

The idea was brought to her by Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, during a trade show in 2024.

“Claud is a very collaborative leader and Detroit is one of our sister cities, and he came to me one day at a trade show and said, ‘Peggy, I think we should approach Michelin to do a Midwest region, and I think that you should be part of it,’” she said, mentioning that he also spoke to the leaders from Minneapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh that day.

The group got in touch with Michelin right away. Six months later, they signed non-disclosure agreements to keep the plans for the new Great Lakes guide under wraps until today’s official announcement, said Williams-Smith.

Access to Michelin’s exclusive ratings takes some investment on the part of the participating city. Visit Milwaukee will pay a total of $450,000, or $150,000 annually, to sponsor Milwaukee’s possible inclusion in the forthcoming Great Lakes guide as part of a three-year contract, said Williams-Smith.

“We know that will pay us back dividends because when people travel, when they travel for food, they stay overnight in hotels, they go do other things, they go to the art museum, they go see a festival, maybe they catch a show, maybe they can see a play at The Rep,” she said. “So we know that this will help overall tourism by making this investment because food plays such a pivotal role in where someone chooses to go on vacation.”