scored 16 out of 20<\/a> (\u201cgreat, plan a visit\u201d) by Viva critic Jesse Mulligan. Its menu is described as hyper-seasonal with an emphasis on local and sustainably harvested ingredients.<\/p>\nThe restaurant is situated on the main road into Piha.<\/p>\n
Parkinson said he\u2019d taken the Michelin beach art that had landed on his doorstep as \u201ca taonga\u201d but, in a video released on social media late last month, he also confirmed Aryeh hadn\u2019t made it on to the Michelin invite list.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo I think Michelin coming to New Zealand is a good thing?\u201d Parkinson asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s good to put your Formula One cars on a Formula One track and see how they do. It\u2019s good to see how we stand up next to the world … it just hurts to not be invited and to be representing everything that they said they were looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Michelin Guide New Zealand (announced in Auckland last Tuesday) recognised 110 restaurants. All of the Auckland recipients were either based in the central city, nearby suburbs or Waiheke Island but Wellington\u2019s selection included a restaurant from Paraparaumu Beach and, in Queenstown, the guide\u2019s reach extended almost 70km to cover W\u0101naka restaurants.<\/p>\n
Parkinson noted the original Michelin guide \u2013 produced by the French tyre company in 1900 \u2013 was aimed at encouraging diners to take road trips.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you got in an Uber and left from the Sky Tower, you\u2019d be in Piha in 45 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parkinson said he didn\u2019t want to \u201cpoke the beast\u201d but, at the same time, Piha\u2019s exclusion was \u201cconfusing\u201d and he had contacted Michelin again, post-awards, to directly ask whether Aryeh and Piha had been included in the judging process.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter the awards came out, I just wanted to know for sure … It was a very brief reply but I am grateful to them for confirming.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, okay, I can dispel that fear of failure.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lucas]()
Lucas Parkinson says his restaurant Aryeh is about 500 metres from Piha Beach, which featured in launch publicity for the Michelin Guide. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
The prospect of gaining a Michelin star was \u201cnot so much about ego\u201d, Parkinson said, as the potential financial boost that might have followed any recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter calling my friends who have got stars, they\u2019re like \u2018yeah bro, bookings have gone nuts\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parkinson, who will reopen Aryeh in August, said he had invested heavily in staff last summer to ensure the restaurant was Michelin-ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can only hope for next year they open up more regions and do include entire cities, instead of just neighbourhoods of cities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parkinson congratulated all of the restaurants included in the inaugural guide, saying it was a huge achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I hope this brings added prosperity and stability to their establishments.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kim Knight joined the New Zealand Herald in 2016 and is a senior reporter on its lifestyle desk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It did confirm it had produced the Michelin logo sand art image at Piha to mark the announcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[114860,9869,255406,7972,169,14647,54180,36355,156,2550,49477,71,13313,228,50242,13232,64789,5511,30706,51211,22643,54677,111,139,69,151757,12663,73759,13235,10468,2539,2751,312,1361,6736,18324,102,80],"class_list":["post-513798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-500m","tag-arrival","tag-aryeh","tag-beach","tag-chef","tag-discovered","tag-eatery","tag-eligible","tag-entertainment","tag-even","tag-excluded","tag-from","tag-giant","tag-guide","tag-highly","tag-inclusion","tag-judging","tag-just","tag-logo","tag-lucas","tag-marked","tag-michelin","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-parkinson","tag-photo","tag-piha","tag-prestigious","tag-rated","tag-restaurant","tag-sand","tag-says","tag-that","tag-was","tag-wasnt","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}