Michelin praises UK restaurants

British restaurants are doing well in extremely difficult trading conditions, according to the British boss of French guide Michelin.

Derek Brown, speaking last week on the day of publication of Michelin's 2003 Red Guide said the commercial "robustness" of restaurants in Britain was impressive.

"It's a difficult time. Tourism is constricted and Americans are not travelling, so you might expect that to damage the trade. But we've not found that to be true."

Standards had also been maintained, he added. Brown said only four of the restaurants that lost stars had lost them because quality had fallen - the others were because chefs had retired, moved or a new chef had been brought in.

One of the developments in this year's guide is the inclusion of a short descriptive text which makes the entries less impenetrable. These take the form of a short paragraph at the end of each entry describing what the restaurant is like.