Originally Posted by
bhrubin
There also are many small towns in America with top level restaurants. Newport Beach has Basilic, Laguna Beach has Studio at Montage, Costa Mesa has Marche Moderne, all within 15-20 min drive of us. Carmel (CA) has Bernardus Lodge's Lucia. Lummi Island (WA) has Willows. Fredericksburg (VA) has Peter Chang's. Boulder (CO) has Frasca. Oxford (MS) has City Grocery. Walland (TN) has the Barn at Blackberry Farm. Washington (VA) has the Inn at Little Washington. Pocantico Hills (NY) has Blue Hill. Pittsboro (NC) has Fearrington House.
First of all, OC is part of greater LA as far as anyone who doesn't live there is concerned. And the others fall into the bucket I wrote about above where I said "I'm sure you can find a few here and there...". But that is a tiny, tiny number compared to continental Europe and even if you just chose just France and Belgium.
Europe developed differently than North America. As a result, it has many small towns relative to its size that developed excellent cuisine over a century if not many centuries. North America developed small towns before food culture, and food culture is certainly focused in our cities more than in Europe. Yet just like Europe, we have many resort locales in small towns/rural areas that offer tremendous dining, along with burgeoning foodie culture in more enlightened and progressive small towns (especially in small towns with excellent colleges and universities).
Yes there is a big difference in the history of the two continents. But you are missing the complete set of consequences of those differences.
With apologies, I'd say that general ignorance of many of America's great small towns and resort locations and their restaurants outside the normal purview of bigger cities is the only reason for such a comment.
Oh, I'm intimately familiar with small town America. No ignorance here. But you see I come from, more recently, a much higher standard of dining in Europe. That's why I consistently see faults in these "great" US restaurants you mention. Maybe you can't see these faults, but some of us do. But that isn't the end of the world. I can still enjoy a fine meal at these places. I just don't lump them in the same bucket as the top Michelin restaurants in Europe. Or even many of the great restaurants in Europe that are not in the Michelin guide.
And if Michelin included the smaller cities in the USA, let alone all of the major cities, there would be no contest: the USA has FAR more excellent restaurants than does France.
Excellent means what? Good tasting food? If that is the only qualifier, then sure the US has more. After all it is a vastly larger country than France. But good tasting food isn't the sole qualifier for a great restaurant or a Michelin rated restaurant. And when you add in all the other characteristics that make a great restaurant, 90% of your great American restaurants fall short of their European counterparts.