Indepenent

The gourmets of the San Francisco region always fancied they owed a thing or two to the French – from the country-style dining in the Napa Valley to the ambitious, foie gras-laden menus at the city’s top eating spots – but the French don’t seem too keen to return the compliment.

Michelin has just issued its first guide to the area’s restaurants, and its assessment is distinctly cool. It gave stars to just 28 of the 356 restaurants it chose to list – notably fewer than the 39 it gave to New York in its first American guide published last year. And only one establishment, Thomas Keller’s French Laundry, was deemed worthy of the full three.

Chez Panisse, the emblematic Berkeley restaurant which arguably launched California cuisine in the 1970s, was awarded just one star. And several San Francisco establishments regarded locally as the best of the best got none.

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Chez Panisse’s founder, Alice Waters, concurred. “I know that it’s absolutely about the complexity of the wine list, and a certain kind of service, and the way the restaurant is set up,” she told the Chronicle. “At Chez Panisse, I’ve never wanted it to conform in that way.”

Perhaps it was the lack of classic French formalism that kept local favourites such as The Slanted Door, an innovative Asian restaurant, off the star rating list. Charles Phan, the chef there, said the ratings left him indifferent. “I’m a local boy, so I don’t read that stuff,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t kiss up to the French.”