The MICHELIN Guide Ceremony has been likened to everything from the Oscars to the Super Bowl, but in the culinary world, it's surely the biggest night out. It's a special time when restaurants are honored and celebrated, and whether it's the first time on stage for a chef or the tenth, the excitement never wears off.
This year's ceremony in California in late June came with some really big news. For the first time since The MICHELIN Guide has returned to Los Angeles, Somni and Providence, were awarded Three Stars (watch Chef Aitor Zabala's reaction here).
Surprisingly, that wasn't the only big news that night. Two brothers, Phillip Frankland Lee and Lennon Silvers Lee, watched as their restaurants were awarded MICHELIN Stars. Cooking is often a family affair and we've written about several siblings who work together, but what makes this story special is that it's the first time in the United States that two brothers working at two different, independent restaurants have been awarded Stars simultaneously.
Phillip Frankland Lee is no stranger to The MICHELIN Guide. He and his wife, Margarita Kallas-Lee, own Scratch Restaurants Group, which comprises 26 restaurants across the United States. Pasta|Bar in Encino was awarded its MICHELIN Star in 2021 within months of opening and has retained it ever since
Lennon Silvers Lee, seven years younger than Phillip, opened his restaurant, Silvers Omakase, in 2024. The Santa Barbara restaurant was awarded its first MICHELIN Star in June. For those in attendance, it was hard to miss, as his big brother whooped with glee.
Recently, we sat down with the two brothers to talk about this history-making recognition and what it means to work in the restaurant industry—together but separately.
You both work in the restaurant industry. Did you always want to be chefs?
Phillip: I wanted to be a chef from the age of 13. I worked at several One, Two and Three Stars. It was while I was working at Providence that I realized 'this is what I want.' I then opened my first restaurant at the age of 25 and was chasing MICHELIN Stars from the beginning.Lennon: Not at all! I wanted to be a skateboarder. I started as a dishwasher because I needed a job, and Phillip was opening a restaurant.
Tell us about working together.
Lennon: I was young when I started as dishwasher—maybe 17—and eventually worked my way up. I bounced around at all the restaurants that Phillip opened over the years and one night he came to me and said, 'you're making sushi tonight.' I fell in love with it, and it was the first time in my life that I didn't look at the clock when I was working.Phillip: Our whole family (there are six siblings) has worked for the company. Our sister is the CFO, our youngest brother works at NADC Burger and another sister worked here for a bit. Everyone except for one brother has been in or worked at the company. Lennon was working for us when we got a Star at Sushi Bar Montecito in 2021.
How did you pick the restaurant locations?
Lennon: No one knows why he got this space in Encino where Sushi by Scratch and Pasta|Bar are located. It's at this carousel. When our parents split up, that's where they would drop us off.
Phillip: So many people wonder why we're in this strip mall. The room that Pasta/Bar is in was a shoe store and Sushi by Scratch was a Baskin-Robbins. When my mom would drop us off, she'd let me get an ice cream there if I was good. Twenty years later I took over those spaces.
Lennon, how did you decide to strike out on your own?
I left Sushi by Scratch just a few months after we got the Star (Editor's note: Sushi by Scratch in Montecito was awarded a Star in 2021 and is now in the Guide as a recommended restaurant). I had a kid, I live at the beach, and I wanted to focus on one restaurant. It was bittersweet leaving since I worked with Phillip for a decade.
Now that you have independent restaurants, do you talk shop?
Phillip: Lennon has a kid and a new business, and I have a kid and new businesses and we live in different cities. We worked next to each for a decade which is longer than we spent time together when we were younger. We still talk regularly, check in with each other and sometimes we talk a little bit of shop.
What have you learned from each other?
Lennon: I've learned so much. I was able to watch my brother do all of these wild things. He was in his 20s and I saw him figure it all out. Without him I would have never been in a situation where I could open my own restaurant and get a MICHELIN Star within a year. It would have never happened.
I opened my restaurant with all of my best friends, just like Phillip did. I have five employees, and three of them I've known since I was 12. We're all best friends. I followed exactly what he did because it made sense.
Phillip: Lennon found this brown rice in Japan, and he started milling his own rice every afternoon before dinner service. I thought that was insane, and Lennon was gracious enough to tell me the company he was working with and share the necessary equipment. While it's not the same rice from the same farm, we do use the same technique. Lennon started as a dishwasher who couldn't care less about cooking and now I'm learning from him. That's really cool.
I think I was the example for him to do your own thing. I think the most important thing to take away is that the cuisine he's preparing comes from him. The menu at Sushi by Scratch where he started and what he's doing at Silver Omakase are so completely different.
What was it like to be awarded a MICHELIN Star?
Philip: It is amazing to have a Star for the fifth year at Pasta|Bar. It's an achievement.Lennon: I was super nervous. When I got the invite, I instantly thought, 'I'm getting a Star.' Then I started second-guessing everything. I was at Sushi Bar-Montecito when it was awarded a Star, but it wasn't a ceremony then. It was just a video.
Phillip: He did get to do the thing that I didn't get to, which is go on stage. I hope to do that one day. MICHELIN reached out in 2020 and asked for my phone number. They ended up canceling that year because of Covid and then in 2021 they reached out and wanted to do an interview. I was going to fly in, but they told me to Zoom in, that we weren't getting a Star. My brother and my wife are in LA and I'm sitting in my apartment in Austin all by myself. They're asking questions and then all of a sudden there's mayhem in the background and one of the producers says, 'Congratulations, chef, you got a MICHELIN Star.' I started crying. That was my first time getting a Star and I got two (one for Sushi by Scratch and one for Pasta|Bar).
I've yet to go on stage to receive a jacket so to have my brother get that (this year) was amazing. My voice still hasn't recovered.
Lennon: Phillip screamed so loud, louder than anyone. it was super cool.
Phillip: I didn't plan it. I didn't know that I was going to react that way. It's like a dad. I got to experience being on stage through you like a proud dad.
It's also, well, there are a thousand restaurants with a Star but being the only pair of brothers with a Star, and we're not sharing it in the same restaurant or restaurant group, but to hold a Star simultaneously for two separate restaurants, that's the coolest achievement of my career.
Hero Image: Brothers celebrating at the MICHELIN Guide Ceremony California 2025
