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[00:00.41] Very recently, a restaurant in Manchester, in the north-west of England, won the city's first Michelin star in 40 years.

[00:10.24] We talk about the Michelin Guide and the effect of winning one of its prestigious stars.

[00:15.82] Yes, because this restaurant, Mana it's called, opened less than a year ago.

[00:22.19] And as soon as it was awarded the star, it became fully booked for months ahead, well into the next year.

[00:29.90] Yeah, and good news also for Manchester, Richard.

[00:33.08] Once a restaurant in a town gets given a star, it elevates not just the restaurant's profile but that of the city too.

[00:41.05] I mean, quite simply, people want to come to a place which has a Michelin-starred restaurant.

[00:46.37] Yeah, so it all seems a very positive thing, doesn't it?

[00:49.55] The most Michelin-starred chef, who was French, he claimed that the stars were financially transformative.

[00:59.38] Yes, indeed, because I think he said with one Michelin star you can get about 20% more business.

[01:06.82] Two stars, 40% more business, and with three stars you'll do twice as much business.

[01:14.79] That's 100% improvement.

[01:17.18] So you'd think then all restaurants would want to get at least star, but that is not necessarily the case.

[01:25.68] Gaining a star, surely that can only be a positive thing.

[01:28.87] Actually some restaurants return their stars and don't actually want to be in the Guide.

[01:35.24] That sounds very odd.

[01:36.57] Why would they do that?

[01:37.90] Two main reasons, right?

[01:39.22] One is undesirable customer expectations.

[01:44.27] Ah, OK. The customers expect too much, do they?

[01:47.19] Well, as soon as you become a Michelin-starred restaurant, then customers have...

[01:53.04] they expect a certain style of food and formal dining.

[01:57.02] So restaurants that, especially those that serve very, very good but perhaps more simple food, they start to get loads of complaints from customers.

[02:07.65] Ah, the pressure.

[02:09.24] The pressure's really on, isn't it?

[02:10.04] For example, there was one chef, she had a restaurant in a garden centre and she said it changed the atmosphere.

[02:17.47] Instead of people coming in and being surprised how good the food was, they came expecting something very special and they complained, for example, that there wasn't tablecloths on the wooden tables.

[02:29.96] They didn't like the rustic feel, they wanted something posher, did they?

[02:33.68] Yeah. The other thing is that the chefs are overwhelmed by the response.

[02:38.72] You talked about that restaurant in Manchester, completely full up.

[02:43.77] And then the thing is, Richard, you've got this star.

[02:48.82] Any minute now, any day, without anybody knowing, a judge can come into your restaurant and decide whether or not you should keep that star or not.

[02:58.11] So the pressure on the chefs to maintain that star is enormous.

[03:03.43] And if you lose that star...

[03:05.02] If you lose a star, you can actually have fewer customers than before.

[03:09.00] People think it's gone downhill.

[03:11.40] Now, an example of this, a restaurant in Dublin, right, lost its star and as a result, profits declined by 76% and eventually the restaurant was forced to close.

[03:24.15] Oh dear. So it's a double-edged sword, really.

[03:27.60] So perhaps, Richard, you won't be surprised to hear that in fact, a few years ago, a celebrated French chef wanted to lose one of his three stars.

[03:37.16] But surely that is the industry's highest accolade.

[03:41.68] That's the right, the top.

[03:43.27] He said he wanted to be allowed to cook excellent food, but away from the frenzy of star ratings and the anxiety over Michelin's anonymous food judges, it just wasn't worth the stress.

[03:56.29] It's interesting then, isn't it, that becoming the best in the business is one thing, but maintaining that is even more demanding.