Los Angeles is getting a Michelin guide again, 9 years after the guide's director said people in LA are 'not real foodies'

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• Los Angeles will once again have a Michelin guide, nine years after the guide's director said people in LA are "not real foodies."
• The Los Angeles guide will be part of a new state-wide California guide that will include restaurants in Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, in addition to the San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country guide.
• LA briefly had its own Michelin guide launched in 2007, but it was canceled because of poor sales, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Los Angeles will once again have a Michelin guide, the company announced Tuesday, nine years after the guide's then-director said people in Los Angeles are "not real foodies."

The Los Angeles guide will be part of a new state-wide California guide that will include restaurants in greater Los Angeles, Monterey, Orange County, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Barbara, in addition to the San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country guide that already exists, Michelin and Visit California announced on Tuesday.

"With access to many of the world's best farms, food producers and vineyards, California cuisine is respected worldwide not only for the quality of its ingredients but also due to the creativity displayed by its chefs," Gwendal Poullennec, international director for the Michelin Guides, said in a press release.

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The Michelin guide's former director, Jean-Luc Naret, didn't have such kind words for California diners.

Michelin released its first Los Angeles Michelin guide in 2007, but it was canceled after just two guides because of poor sales, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Read more: 5 restaurants in NYC earned the highest Michelin rating for 2019 - and 2 of them have topped the list every year since the ranking started

Naret, the director at the time, blamed it on the people of Los Angeles.

"The people in Los Angeles are not real foodies," Naret told Esquire in 2010. "They are not too interested in eating well, but just into who goes to which restaurant and where they sit."

Michelin will announce the 2019 starred restaurants in the inaugural California Guide in the summer.

The San Francisco Michelin Guide has been published each year since 2007.