Originally Posted by
SQTraveller
I honestly don't understand how these Michelin stars are decided. Seems pretty arbitrary and most of them are just average - case in point, Hawker Chan. It's a decent plate of food but is it better than what I'd get other places in Singapore? You get better roasted meat at some of the neighborhood hawker centres.
the chef sold the business to a corporation when he got a michelin recognition (i cant remember if it was a star then). what follows is usually a death spiral, because they cant maintain the same level as the original chef especially after expanding to multiple locations. in hawker chan's case, he remained involved and sometimes still visit/cook at the original store (not sure if that is the case now), but from the onset, the standard across the stores varied a lot, with the original store still the best and the store in YCK inedible. when the no of customers or profit dont meet expectations, these corporations will start cutting costs, which usually means cutting portion size or ingredients quality. this results in more customers lost, starting the death spiral