Jesse Burgess on debunking Michelin Star myths with ‘Knife Edge’ and why Indian food keeps pulling him back

The ‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ host and TOPJAW co-founder opens up about what the little red stars really measure, why chefs chase them, and why Indian food keeps him coming back for more

Published - September 29, 2026 07:08 pm IST

Jesse Burgess in a still from ‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ | Photo Credit: Apple TV

Ever wondered what a Michelin Star actually means, or what earning one of the highest honours of the culinary world tells you about the food on your plate?

For roughly a decade, British food and travel content creator Jesse Burgess has been trying to get closer to the people who know the answer from the other side of the pass. He is the co-founder of TOPJAW, the food platform he runs with filmmaker Will Warr, where he has interviewed chefs, actors, and food obsessives about the restaurants they genuinely love returning to. TOPJAW has grown into a global food platform with more than a million followers, giving Jesse a career spent moving between the people who make great food and the people who know where to find it. Now, as the host of Apple TV’s Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars, he is following the most gifted chefs from around the world to find answers to the considerably more nerve-racking question: what does it take for a restaurant to convince Michelin that its cooking belongs among the very best on the planet?

Executive produced by Gordon Ramsay through Studio Ramsay Global, Knife Edge follows chefs as they try to earn, retain, or increase their Michelin Stars. The first season travelled through restaurants across the United States, Europe and Mexico. Season two follows 16 restaurants across several countries, including Gareth Ward’s Ynyshir in rural Wales and Nathan Davies’s Vraic in Guernsey. Jesse and the team also get unprecedented access to Michelin inspectors, whose reports help determine whether a restaurant receives a Star while their identities remain hidden from the chefs they are judging.

The anonymity has been part of the Guide’s system since 1933, which has naturally given Michelin inspectors an almost folkloric status in the culinary world. They book restaurants under assumed names, pay their own bills, and can return for another meal when a decision requires more evidence. Michelin says they assess five things: the quality of the ingredients, the execution of the cooking, the chef’s personality in the food, consistency across the menu, and consistency between visits, but Jesse has discovered that much of the folklore is considerably more colourful than the actual job.

“There are a lot of myths around Michelin, which have been really fun to kind of debunk or find out the truth,” Jesse says. He had heard that a dropped fork could count against a restaurant if somebody did not pick it up quickly enough, while another rumour claimed that an inspector forced to queue for the toilet could lose the restaurant its Star. Neither is true. “The inspectors are effectively there just to judge what is on the plate in front of them,” he adds.

Jesse Burgess in a still from ‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ | Photo Credit: Apple TV

The Star still has real weight for the people working inside Michelin’s system, even though Jesse knows plenty of chefs who work just as hard without ever chasing one. “A lot of people working in the restaurants of this style, and of this ilk, are very hardworking people,” he says. “But there are also very, very hardworking people in restaurants that don’t have aspirations of a Michelin star.”

In its first season, Knife Edge took Jesse through restaurants including Nōksu, a Korean restaurant hidden inside a New York subway station; Coqodaq, a Korean fried-chicken restaurant; Chicago’s Cariño and Smyth; Copenhagen’s Aure; Sweden’s Knystaforsen; London’s Caractère; Mexico City’s Em and Máximo; and California’s Pasta|Bar and Harbor House Inn.

In its sophomore season, Jesse explores Ynyshir in rural Wales, and Vraic in Guernsey, among others. Apple describes the new season as 16 restaurants at pivotal points in their Michelin journeys. Jesse says the basic selection philosophy has remained much the same. “I don’t think a huge amount has changed in terms of the restaurant selection from season one to two,” he says. The casting team, led by Gia Ramsey, was looking for “great stories”, which is why the likes of Ynyshir and Vraic stood out.

Chef Gareth Ward from Ynyshir, Wales in a still from ‘Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars’ | Photo Credit: Apple TV

Ynyshir is Gareth Ward’s legendary 16-seat restaurant in Eglwys Fach, on the west coast of Wales, where he serves a roughly 30-course tasting menu built around Welsh produce and Japanese influences. Gareth and his wife Amelia own the restaurant, which holds two Michelin Stars and has made the remote Powys countryside a destination for diners travelling specifically to eat there. Jesse says he might never have visited the area without it. “It has drawn so many people to that part of the country who never would have known about it” he says. “It’s a glorious, gorgeous part of the country, but it is a long way away from a lot of the major cities. And that tale of creating this crazy world in a very remote part of Wales, and all the trials and tribulations and challenges that come with that is incredible”.