Was a Small Wholesaler Just Awarded a Michelin Star?
Sadly, no. Michelin Stars are only awarded to restaurants. Napa Nuts, a purveyor of gourmet wholesale ingredients, used by amazing and creative chefs and bakers, has exactly zero Michelin Stars. However, the restaurants that we supply with high quality nut and dried fruit ingredients have 10 stars! While we can’t claim credit for their success, we like to think that we have an important role in their success: consistently providing the best possible products year round.
Three Michelin Stars
What is the Michelin Star?
The Michelin Company has a world-renowned restaurant ranking program. They rank restaurants all over the world for outstanding food quality and overall dining experience. Their team of anonymous diners eats at restaurants recommended by the public, seeking dining experiences that really stand out.
The recognition/ranking process is actually a bit more complicated than just dining out at great restaurants. If you would like to learn more, here is Michelin’s guide to the process in a handy infographic.
How does the ranking work?
Michelin rates restaurants on a one to three star basis. The organization describes rankings as follows:
One star: This restaurant has a quality menu and prepares cuisine to a consistently high standard. This restaurant is worth a stop on your trip to that city.
Two stars: The restaurant has excellent cuisine delivered in a unique way. This restaurant offers exceptional food and would be worth a detour to visit while traveling.
Three stars: The restaurant has exceptional cuisine and is worth a special trip just to visit. Rather than being a stop on the way to a destination, this restaurant is the destination. Dining at this restaurant is an experience that will be memorable and worth the trip.
Source: The Michelin Guide
Why Ingredients Matter
Any chef will tell you that high quality ingredients are crucial to having food that tastes good. There is a reason top-tier chefs don’t shop at the corner store for their steaks. Some chefs, such as Thomas Keller of The French Laundry (with Three Michelin Stars), have gardens to grow as much of their own food as possible. The garden across the street from the restaurant is a tourist destination of its own. When freshness is important, it doesn’t get any fresher than this.
The French Laundry Garden in Yountville, CA
Restaurants that have the ability and grow their own food are deservedly proud of this fact. At some point there have to be some limitations. Even this Three Michelin Star restaurant and garden is limited by climate. They are unable to grow their own chocolate or their own cashews as the climate of Northern California doesn’t support those kinds of tropical trees. If they could, they would probably be the best in the world, but this also takes a few years of planning to have trees that produce at the right time.
Most chefs do have to turn to wholesalers for their bulk ingredients. When creativity strikes and cashews, or something else exotic, will perfectly complete the dish, the source will have to come from somewhere else. This is where Napa Nuts comes in. We have spent decades curating only the best available ingredients. Customers, such as the Restaurant at Meadowood, another recipient of a Three Star rating, know that whatever product they order, they will get the best available quality.
To Napa Nuts, quality is our identity. We look for the best and our customers expect the best. We source our nuts and dried fruit from trusted growers and distributors who focus on quality and consistency in the same way that we do.
Napa Nuts’ Michelin Star Customers
Three Star restaurants:
One Star restaurants:
Bouchon Bistro and Bouchon Bakery
This is a total of Ten Michelin Stars in the Napa Nuts customer list. As a fine foods wholesale purveyor to these (and many other) well-recognized establishments, we are delighted to further their achievements. If you are a chef looking to use the same bulk ingredients as the professionals, please visit napanuts.store.