SAN DIEGO — California’s annual Michelin Guide ceremony can be fraught with anxiety for chefs and restaurateurs. After all, it’s the night when they discover whether their restaurants gain, maintain or, in the worst-case scenario, lose a Michelin star, one of the culinary industry’s most coveted honors. But at Wednesday night’s event in San Diego, there was nary a hint of competition. 

Instead, the overwhelming feeling was one of community.

At an opening cocktail reception on the curved covered terrace at Eve, an indoor-outdoor waterfront event venue, the vibes were immaculate. Sun poured onto the covered terrace and bounced off the bay below. Attendees dressed to the nines milled around, enjoying passed bites like Thai spring rolls and glasses of sparkling wine. Some of the best-known chefs from all over California hugged and talked shop, having spent years cooking, collaborating and dining together in the rarified world that is California fine dining. Many stopped at a signature Michelin red step-and-repeat to snap a pic with the puffy, permanently jolly Michelin Man, who made the rounds for photo ops.

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The team behind Kato in Los Angeles poses with the Michelin Man at the Michelin ceremony in San Diego on June 24, 2206.

It was an especially proud evening for the San Diegans in attendance, like chef Elijah Arizmendi of newly minted one-star Lucien in La Jolla, Eric Bost of one-star Lilo and Jeune et Jolie in Carlsbad, and William Bradley of Addison by William Bradley, which, until last year, held the distinction of being Southern California’s only three-star Michelin restaurant.

“It’s a huge validation for everybody who’s been working their asses off for so long,” said San Diego Magazine co-owner and writer Troy Johnson. “For years, we’ve been written off as the flaccid mozzarella stick of California cuisine, whereas LA and San Francisco have been taken seriously. We’ve seen [the San Diego culinary scene] grow up, and now the rest of the world is noticing.”

Once the crowd filtered into a ballroom and the star ceremony commenced, one of the........

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