All the usual hype and hugs were in place when Guide Michelin doled out its latest round of stars to Norwegian restaurants this week. Norway now has two restaurants with three Michelin stars, one with two stars and 17 with one, and they’re not all in the country’s biggest cities.
Oslo remains the city with the most, though, with a total of 11. Maaemo retained its three stars, and Re-Naa in Stavanger won a third star, to the delight of its leader Sven Erik Renaa. He noted that Stavanger didn’t have any restaurants with Michelin stars when he opened Re-Naa 15 years ago. Now it has four, including one of the newly starred restaurants, Hermetikken, and his as the first with three-stars outside Oslo.
Kontrast in Oslo, meanwhile, won a second star and there are three Norwegian newcomers in the Michelin Guide: Iris in Rosendal, Bar Amour in Oslo and Hermetikken. All the others retained their stars. Some aren’t wildly expensive, either, and newspaper Aftenposten reported that Michelin stars have become more “folksey,” especially when some cooks in Michelin restaurants open their own eateries, one of which is a popular kebab joint in the Oslo suburb of Bærum.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
