Michelin hands out big nods in Brazil
The Michelin Guide 2026 awarded three stars to both Evvai and Tuju in São Paulo, and added a new star for Madame Olympe in Rio de Janeiro in the latest regional announcements ( ). Separately, Detroit has been included in the Michelin Guide for the first time, a move local coverage frames as a major moment for the city’s dining profile (clickondetroit.com).
Brazil’s Michelin Guide just crossed a line it had never reached before: São Paulo’s Evvai and Tuju now hold three stars. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin announced the 2026 Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo selection on April 13 at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro. Evvai, led by Luiz Filipe Souza, and Tuju, led by Ivan Ralston, became the first restaurants in Latin America to receive Michelin’s top rating. (guide.michelin.com; g1.globo.com) Rio also added one new one-star restaurant: Madame Olympe, run by chef Claude Troisgros and Jéssica Trindade. Michelin kept D.O.M. in São Paulo and Lasai and Oro in Rio at two stars, with no new additions in that tier. (guide.michelin.com; diariodorio.com) That matters partly because Michelin’s Brazil guide is still narrow by design: it covers only Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, not the whole country. Within that limited map, the 2026 edition pushed Brazil to the top tier of Michelin’s Latin American rankings for the first time. (guide.michelin.com; uol.com.br) The star system is Michelin’s core ranking: one star signals a very good restaurant, two stars signal cooking worth a detour, and three stars signal a restaurant worth a special journey. In Brazil’s 2026 list, the one-star total fell to 19 from 20 a year earlier even as the top end expanded. (guide.michelin.com; exame.com) Michelin also widened its footprint in the United States last week by creating a new American Great Lakes edition that includes Detroit for the first time. The guide will cover six cities — Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh — and Michelin said the first restaurant selection will be published in 2027. (guide.michelin.com; clickondetroit.com) In Detroit, eligibility extends beyond the city itself to restaurants in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties, according to local coverage and the regional announcement. Michelin inspectors are already scouting, but no Detroit restaurants have stars yet because the first Great Lakes ratings are still months away. (cbsnews.com; guide.michelin.com) Taken together, the two announcements show Michelin moving in two directions at once in April 2026: deeper at the top of Brazil’s existing guide and wider across a new part of the United States. Brazil got its first three-star restaurants on April 13; Detroit got a place on Michelin’s map on April 8. (guide.michelin.com; guide.michelin.com)
