Last week saw the publication of the Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland 2008 an event that, as usual,  set chefs aflutter across the capital. For months all has been speculation, who’s going up and who’s going down. Chefs know just how much a star would add to their c.v. and to their takings. However I have never seen a customer in a restaurant with the fabled red book, chefs buy a copy but I am yet to be convinced that the Michelin Guide is on every foodie's bedside table. None of which stops the stars being the best ever marketing tool. Here’s what they have to say about Arbutus.

“Spec. Braised pig’s head with potato purée and caramelised onions, Bavette of beef with gratin dauphinoise, red wine and shallot sauce. Vanilla panna cotta with poached rhubarb. +  Dining room and bar that’s bright and stylish without trying too hard. Bistro classics turned on their head: poised carefully crafted cooking – but dishes still pack a punch.”

All of which is true. And I’m a big fan of this restaurant which thoroughly deserves its Michelin star, but it is impossible to get a feel for this place from such a scanty entry. Where does it say that Anthony Demetre has a genuine love of offal dishes, one that goes way beyond pig’s head into the territory of tripe and sheeps’ feet or andouillettes de Troyes? Where does it mention the splendid cheeses? And what about the 250ml carafes that allow you to try forty different wines?  And the ungraspingly priced wine list? And what about the painstaking sourcing of top quality ingredients – Elwy Valley lamb, Rhug Estate beef, English snails? Or the friendly service? And what about pointing out the link between Arbutus and Wild Honey – another well deserved winner of a Michelin star – does it make sense to only have the link from Wild Honey to Arbutus but not the other way around?

The announcement of this year’s Michelin stars was a fairly low key event, nothing shocking or amazing happened. La Trompette got its first (something that was well overdue); at Hibiscus they only managed to preserve one of the two stars they held previously in Ludlow, Wild Honey got a star, Rhodes W1 got a star, Quilon got a star – very good cooking here, why are ethnic restaurants such a low priority with the Michelin inspectors?  Refurbs meant closure and the loss of single stars for The Savoy Grill and Angela Hartnett at the Connaught. While the Orrery just lost its star.  The two star line up stayed the same – Pied à Terre, The Capital, Petrus; Le Gavroche and the Square – in my view  both Gavroche and the Square should have three stars for several years now. But for three stars in London there’s only Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road.

So as Stanley Holloway observed in “Albert and the Lion” his classic monologue, ”There was no wrecks and nobody drownded, in fact nothing to laff at, at all”

Charles Campion