In December, the Michelin Guide announced that Utah, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona will be considered in 2026. Michelin says its new Michelin Guide Southwest edition allows people to “experience the Southwest’s culinary richness in its entirety.”
This distinction is the second multi-state U.S. region considered by Michelin Guide since the American South in 2025.
The French tire company Michelin started in 1889. The Michelin brothers printed out road maps of the best places to eat by 1926 to boost care and tire sales. By the 1930s, stars were added to the best restaurants, and the criteria for the chosen restaurants has been the same since 1936.
Now, for the first time, Arizona could get its first Michelin-star restaurant.
Michelin Guide will send out anonymous food tasters, called inspectors, to hubs and small communities around the Southwest.
KJZZ reported that the Arizona Office of Tourism confirmed the commission to pay Michelin Guide to review the restaurants in the state of Arizona, which has been done by tourist agencies since 2016.
In Tucson, the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States, more fine-dining restaurants are opening and garnering more attention.
VIEW LARGER A dessert dish is served in a bowl from BATA, a new fine-dining restaurant in downtown Tucson on May 17, 2025.
Thatcher Warrick Hess, AZPM News
Cindy Aguilar, the vice president of communications for Visit Tucson, said that she excited for the 2026 distinction announced by Michelin.
Aaron Lopez, the founder and chef of Ursa restaurant, said that the Michelin Guide distinction was a “pleasant surprise.”
The fine-dining restaurant that serves an 8 course meal opened downtown Tucson in November. The food is inspired by Lopez’s time living in the Southwest with his wife June, before relocating from California.
VIEW LARGER Owner Aaron Lopez and his wife June sit in the open seating of their restaurant Ursa.
Courtesy of Ursa
“[Tucson’s] designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy reinforces the city’s commitment to a vibrant food culture rooted in heritage crops and ancestral traditions,” Lopez responded in an email. “That mission aligns closely with Ursa’s work to highlight and reimagine heritage crops, and we’re proud to contribute to the ongoing legacy of this community.”
Aguilar explained that Michelin stars, Bib Gourmand or Green star recognition will have a ripple effect for the local economy, as it will bring in more tourism to Tucson.
“As the first of two UNESCO Cities of Gastronomy in the United States, and the only one in Arizona, having The Michelin Guide in the state will only help to increase Tucson’s visibility as a culinary destination,” Aguilar said.
VIEW LARGER A deconstructed dish served on a plate at Ursa.
Courtesy of Ursa
Dr. Megan Carney is a professor and sociocultural medical feminist anthropologist who teaches critical migration and food insecurity at the University of Arizona.
Carney has seen the effects of Michelin having lived in a small town near Paris. This small town had many Michelin restaurants, and the effects did not change the town that drastically.
“There is an attitude within Western Europe that ‘good food belongs to all’ and there is a real social collective commitment to making elevated cuisine, or cuisine of a particular place, more accessible to a wider variety of people,” said Dr. Carney. “But I don’t know if that is the case in the U.S.”
Later this year, the restaurant winners will be named at the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Southwest Ceremony and added to the new list of restaurants in this year’s guide.
Chef Lopez at Ursa said that it would be an honor to receive a MICHELIN star, but it was not the reason he moved to Tucson.
“While we’re not doing what we do for the acclaim, I can’t lie and say it wouldn’t be a career highlight,” Lopez concluded in the email.
