Two years after shocking Europe’s culinary establishment by declaring Tokyo the restaurant capital of the world in its inaugural Asian guide, Michelin is again giving western food critics indigestion.

This time the French tyre and travel-guide empire is making a concerted push into the arcane world of Japanese kaiseki cuisine – elaborate multi-course meals – with the launch on Tuesday of its first guide to the gastronomic centres of Kyoto and neighbouring Osaka, in Japan’s central-west.