Michelin retired its Green Stars to the dismay of sustainable chefs in Chicago

CHICAGO -- Joe Frillman, owner and executive chef of Daisies in Chicago's Logan Square, was thrilled when he first learned that the restaurant was awarded a Michelin Green Star for sustainability in 2024. He said his first thought was a resounding, slightly surprised, "Wow!"

Not because it was a jaw-dropping shocker - Daisies' very ethos is sustainable cooking - but because an entity like Michelin, the mysterious albeit ultimate purveyor of the mark of culinary excellence, noticed.

"It was first a reaffirmation and recognition of what we've already been doing and were proud of, but then people would start coming in from out of town and tell us, ‘We saw you got a Green Star … this is important to us and we want to spend our money with you,"' Frillman told the Tribune recently. That diner, he recalled, took a photo of the Green Star plaque before leaving.

Reactions like those drove Daisies' vegetable-forward, farm-focused mission to new heights. People cared. The accolade made them more visible.

But it was short-lived. Last month, Michelin quietly announced that it was phasing out the Green Star distinction and chefs would no longer be able to advertise that they have it. Besides Daisies, Feld is the only other restaurant in Chicago to be given a Green Star.

"Is it a let-down? Of course," Frillman said. Chefs like Frillman have widely expressed disappointment in Michelin's decision, saying that the abrupt removal of the designation undoes years of high-caliber sustainability recognition.

The staff at Daisies didn't hear from Michelin directly about the Green Star's phaseout. Frillman said there were whispers of it several months ago, but he found out through Instagram, after seeing other Green Star restaurants post their own disappointment at the news.

In a post on its website last month, the Michelin Guide introduced "Mindful Voices," a new editorial initiative built around people in gastronomy and hospitality "who are innovating and launching inspiring initiatives."

That announcement also included a note: "At the same time, the Green Star, which was limited to the culinary arts, will be discontinued."

Frillman said the restaurants that earned a Green Star deserve more than a brief footnote to explain the cancellation of a program that promoted the industry's role in addressing environmental standards.

Daisies, an all-day cafe/restaurant, works in tandem with Frillman Farms - a 30-acre family farm in Michigan that Frillman's brother owns and operates. The direct pipeline provides the kitchen with regionally grown, seasonal produce, which is handled with a zero-waste "root-to-fruit" approach, where each part of a piece of produce is used, whether upcycled in various dishes or fermented for future use.

Frillman said farmers often call Daisies when the crops aren't "perfect" enough to sell to markets, or when butchers have a surplus of odds and ends. Daisies will repurpose things like pig heads for porchetta, ferment bruised and battered turnips or make pesto from the worn-out arugula no one else wants.

Late last year, Frillman opened his second restaurant, The Radicle, focusing more deeply on seafood sustainability, which can be a heavier lift for a place landlocked in the middle of the country.

"About a week before they pulled the star, we were having a conversation about how do you make a sustainable seafood restaurant here?" Frillman explained. "There are ways to do it and in that conversation was one time when I was like, ‘Hey, let's see if we can get this (Green Star) here too.' I think that would be cool."

Michelin retiring the Green Star isn't going to change anything for Frillman's team at either restaurant, but the organization's choice to discontinue it does raise some red flags, he said.

Michelin first began awarding Green Stars in 2020 in an effort to be more conscious of the climate crisis. Any restaurant in the Michelin Guide, from those with stars to those on the Bib Gourmand list, was eligible.

According to Michelin's website, inspectors considered the provenance of ingredients, the use of seasonal produce, the restaurant's environmental footprint, food waste systems, general waste disposal and recycling, resource management, and how the restaurant communicated its sustainable approach to guests.

But that vetting process relied heavily on restaurants themselves, who were asked to submit an extensive questionnaire to be considered for the Green Star.

Frillman said the survey was long and detailed, and he doesn't know if Michelin took more steps to evaluate restaurants.

Frillman considered that perhaps the auditing process for the sustainability award might be difficult to consistently rehash, similar to how a Michelin Star is retained or revoked based on an annual inspection. But retiring the program entirely felt abrupt, he noted.

Even before the May post on its website, Michelin removed "Green Star" as a searchable category. The most recent tally on Michelin's website is from 2022, with 287 Michelin Green Star restaurants across the world.

People in the industry, especially those who work intimately with the agricultural sector, have speculated for months that Michelin may have changed course on the Green Star for political reasons. Pushback from the Trump administration on corporations that had aligned themselves with sustainability or diversity, equity and inclusion practices has been well documented since he took office.

"Maybe this is their way of furthering themselves, just to not get scrutinized on that aspect of things?" Frillman said. "Of course, this is all hearsay. But without explanations, people will start asking more questions."

The Trump administration has implemented significant policy changes affecting the agricultural and environmental sectors, including the cancellation of a $3 billion climate-smart initiative and the cancellation of a $400 million Regional Food Business Center program aimed at building local supply chains. The USDA has also revoked grants from various farm groups and individual producers.

While industry insiders speculate whether these political shifts influenced Michelin's decision to phase out the Green Star, the organization has not provided an official explanation for the move. Michelin could not be reached for comment despite the Tribune's repeated attempts.

Like Frillman, Jacob Potashnick, chef and owner of Feld in Ukrainian Village, suggested that Michelin's process for awarding Green Stars wasn't airtight, anyway.

"Sustainability is a very difficult thing to audit, especially when you are the size of Michelin, and covering as many regions and countries as they are … I think I understand both sides," Potashnick said. "It was an honor to be the last class of Green Star recipients, but it's not going to affect how we choose to work in a sustainable, mindful, thoughtful manner. It's always lovely to be recognized for the work you're doing. The recognition hopefully does not change the work you're doing."

Feld, with its hyper-seasonal tasting menu, earned a Michelin Star in 2025 and Potashnick won a James Beard Award last week in the Best Chef: Great Lakes category.

"I was totally thrilled when I heard that Daisies and Feld both got Green Stars, and I felt it was the perfect fit," said Sarah Stegner, co-owner and chef of Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook and an original founding member of Green City Market.

For decades, Stegner has been a driving force for education surrounding the sustainable food movement and a leading advocate for locally sourced food.

While Michelin's Green Star platform wasn't the standard-bearer of eco-friendly food, it was a plus-point for the industry, she said. Michelin paying close attention to sustainable kitchens was a step toward recognizing how the climate crisis is affecting food systems, especially as operating a "green" kitchen often requires meticulous steps that begin at the farmer level, Stegner said.

"Acknowledging restaurants that have made efforts to use local and spread stories of what sustainable practices lead to is extremely valuable to our communities," she said. "It needs to have a bigger platform."

In lieu of Michelin's Green Star, she hopes another entity someday steps up to acknowledge and award sustainability in the food industry in a way that makes practical sense.

"It's about understanding what that farmer is going through in order to put that food on the table," Stegner said. "It's a very unique person in a unique situation, and chefs have invested a lot of time and energy into being connected to our food system, and those chefs should be acknowledged and should be celebrated."

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This story was originally published June 26, 2026 at 10:02 AM.