Copyright The New York Times
Since leading the kitchen as chef de cuisine at Alinea in Chicago in the late 2000s, Dave Beran has had a long history with Michelin, making him an obvious fit for the new Apple TV show “Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars,” which premiered on Oct. 10. Instead of focusing on Mr. Beran’s tweezered pursuit of transcendent cuisine, however, his story line puts something much more prosaic center stage: the money. Specifically, how much money his Santa Monica, Calif., restaurant, Pasjoli, was bleeding after losing its Michelin star in 2022. In one scene, his chief operating officer, Ann Hsing, tells him the restaurant is in the red, even though they’re charging $65 for a single entree. In another, he says losing a star cost Pasjoli 30 to 40 percent of its business. At the end of his episode, Mr. Beran decides to pivot Pasjoli away from Michelin and toward being a neighborhood restaurant. “It was becoming a restaurant I frankly couldn’t afford to go to on a regular basis,” Mr. Beran said in an interview. “Knife Edge” follows chefs in regions around the world, including New York, Chicago and California, as they pursue recognition from Michelin during a single awards cycle. The influence of Michelin has been expanding across North America at a punishing time for independent restaurants, in a number of American cities, and slowing growth nationally. Increasingly, winning — and retaining — Michelin stars is one of the few guaranteed paths for restaurants to attract new diners.
