The Michelin Guide is expanding its American coverage to encompass six more U.S. cities, to be featured in their very own “American Great Lakes” edition.
Michelin’s inspectors are already said to be “making reservations and scouting for culinary gems” in the six cities — Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh — in preparation for the release of the guide in 2027.
“We are excited to finally be putting a stake in the ground in the Great Lakes region, spotlighting the talent and food cultures across these six great cities,” Gwendal Poullennec, the international director of the Michelin Guide, said in a statement included with a press release issued last week. “Our anonymous Inspectors have begun canvassing these cities for impressive culinary talent and are eager to share their experiences with you in the inaugural selection next year.”
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The American Great Lakes edition of the Michelin Guide is the latest of the French institution’s foray into the American culinary landscape, having already established guides covering New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., California, Texas and the Southwest, among several other areas of the U.S. But many of these guides would not have been possible without financial partnerships between Michelin and the regions’ local tourism boards.
In recent years, Michelin has partnered with local and state tourism boards to help fund the creation of new guides for those areas — but only after the inspectors have deemed the local food scene to be worthy, Michelin says. Such appears to be the case with the six cities included in the American Great Lakes edition, according to their state tourism representatives.
Spokespeople for the tourism boards in Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh have confirmed financial partnerships with the Michelin Guide. Minneapolis’ tourism board is chipping in $250,000 annually for three years, while Indianapolis’ and Milwaukee’s are each contributing $150,000 annually for three years. Representatives for tourism boards in Cleveland and Pittsburgh did not provide amounts.
The people behind the Michelin Guide, however, could not elaborate on their arrangements with each tourism board — or each destination marketing organization (DMO), as they’re also known. In the latest press release concerning the American Great Lakes guide, Michelin says the partnerships are for “marketing and promotional efforts only.”
But when asked for clarification, a representative for Michelin told Nexstar that the funds “support marketing and promotional efforts primarily.”
“The agreement enables collaborative work to promote the area’s culinary offerings,” reads a statement provided by the Michelin Guide.
It’s unclear if this was always the case with previous partnerships.
Poullennec, speaking with Bon Appetit in 2024, suggested that the Michelin’s arrangements with these DMOs helped to defray the editorial expenses involved with producing the guides.
In a statement to Nexstar, the anonymous chief inspector for the North America Michelin Guide once also insisted that inspectors do not show favoritism to the restaurants of a city or region as a result of these financial arrangements.
“The involvement of DMOs in establishing new Guides does not have any influence on the Inspectors’ judgments regarding the destination assessment, the restaurants in the selection, or award distinctions,” the inspector told Nexstar in 2025. “DMO teams have no access to the Inspectors’ work or the final selection until the list of selected restaurants is revealed by the MICHELIN Guide.”
Michelin’s inspector also suggested that a financial partnership with DMOs isn’t always a necessity when Michelin chooses a new destination to cover, though that hasn’t been the case with several of the most recent U.S. guides.
Tourism boards in Texas, for instance, agreed to pay a combined $2.7 million (over three years) to help fund the state’s guide in 2024, according to the Fort Worth Report. Several tourism boards also reportedly entered into a paid partnership with Michelin to expand to the American Southwest, per Albuquerque Business First and the Phoenix Business Journal.
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Boston’s relationship with the Michelin Guide is another illustrative example. MeetBoston, a tourism marketing organization, had previously met with Michelin to discuss bringing inspectors to its city in 2022, but declined when they learned they had to pay to help fund it, MeetBoston representatives told Eater the following year. But Boston finally got its own guide in 2025 after agreeing to contribute just over $1 million in a three-year deal with Michelin, The Boston Globe reported.
MeetBoston CEO Martha Sheridan said the organization changed its mind after talking with chefs in the area, Boston’s WCVB reported.
“Meet Boston has nothing to do with the inspection process whatsoever,” Sheridan told the outlet. “Our investment was purely about getting them to come into the market.”
Its also clear that the tourism marketing boards behind the six cities that make up the “American Great Lakes” feel that a few Michelin stars would be well worth their own investments.
“We believe in our region’s culinary talent,” a representative from VisitPITTSBURGH told Nexstar. “We want to celebrate that by giving these rest
