Early this month, the Michelin guide bestowed its highest honour – three stars – on a Chinese restaurant for the first time. The recipient was Lung King Heen in Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel, whose executive chef, Chan Yan Tak, is a specialist in Cantonese cooking. Michelin said its inspectors had made 12 anonymous visits to Lung King Heen, and had been impressed by consistent excellence. Chef Chan’s is one of only two three-starred restaurants in the new Michelin guide to Hong Kong and Macau (the other is French chef Joël Robuchon’s place in Macau).

In a sense, this accolade is a watershed for Chinese cuisine: finally, recognition by the European gastronomic establishment that a Chinese chef may be considered the peer of the finest in France and Spain. But it has proved controversial. Michelin’s admission that only two of the 12 inspectors working on the guide were Chinese has provoked derision in Hong Kong food circles, with some critics insisting that outsiders lack the cultural knowledge to judge Chinese food. The guide has also been pilloried for its focus on high-end hotel restaurants, rather than the more local and hole-in-the-wall establishments that are often the favourites of Hong Kong gourmets.