Michelin -- will it see the stars in L.A.?

In addition to the Southern California guide, Michelin will also be introducing a separate guide for Las Vegas this October as well as one for Tokyo that was announced two weeks ago.

These books continue Michelin's push into international publishing. In 2006 it entered the American market with a guide to New York City, and last year it introduced one for San Francisco (published in the fall but titled "2007").

Los Angeles has a full-time team of six inspectors and Las Vegas four, says Christian Delhaye, the Paris-based president of Michelin Maps & Guides. Each local inspector averages more than 300 restaurant meals per year, he says. Their reports are supplemented by visits from inspectors from outside the area -- from not only the United States, but Europe as well.

"I think that all the restaurants in the world need to have a scale," Delhaye says. "We have been publishing this guide for 107 years and what we bring is an international selection of good quality. We are very proud of that. But we are also coming with a lot of humility, discovering the diversity of the area every day with all of our inspectors there."

A rare distinction

SO far, only four restaurants in the United States have earned the guide's coveted three stars, and only one on the West Coast -- Thomas Keller's French Laundry in Napa Valley. In New York the honor has gone to Keller's Per Se, Jean-George Vongerichten's Jean-George and Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin. Alain Ducasse at the Essex House had won three stars in 2006, but was dropped this year because it is moving.

That compares with 10 three-star restaurants in Paris alone and 26 in France.

American restaurants receiving two stars include four restaurants in each area: Aqua, Michael Mina, Manresa and Cyrus in the Bay Area; and Bouley, Daniel, Del Posto and Masa in New York.

Even at home, Michelin's judgments often come with a generous side helping of controversy. But that is particularly true when the guide ventures beyond its French-based comfort zone.

That is unlikely to change in Southern California. Piero Selvaggio, owner of Valentino, Santa Monica's grande dame of fine dining, says the area's casual culture just isn't geared to the kind of restaurant Michelin tends to honor.