The Michelin story stealing the spotlight in Dallas-Fort Worth is how brand-new French restaurant Mamani won 1 Michelin star.

The conversation is largely not around whether Mamani deserves the big win. No, it’s around why this monumental win happened in the first place.

Mamani opened Sept. 2, 2025, and was one of the most interesting new restaurants of the year in Dallas-Fort Worth. Its executive chef-partner, 37-year-old Christophe De Lellis, is toiling in the restaurant daily, fine-tuning his newborn alongside a fleet of servers, chefs, managers, a sommelier and even a full-time baking director. De Lellis has told The Dallas Morning News he’s proud of his French restaurant — and it’s the first that’s really his — but that Mamani is a work in progress. It’s a great painting and he’s still holding the brush.

Yet, sometime in the restaurant’s first 48 dinners, anonymous Michelin critics ate at Mamani several times and were impressed enough with its food to hand it Dallas’ only new Michelin star of 2025.

It was a move so shocking, The News asked tight-lipped company Michelin to explain.

In a statement, Michelin’s anonymous chief inspector — a person rarely heard from in the media — said De Lellis’ impressive resume helped his chances. Much of De Lellis’ professional career was working for revered French chef Joël Robuchon. Even after his death, Robuchon is one of the most decorated Michelin-starred chefs in the world.

De Lellis’ roots are in France, the home of Michelin.

Here’s Michelin: “Chef Christophe De Lellis has had a consistent background before opening Mamani,” the anonymous, unnamed chief inspector wrote to The News, “and multiple meals there proved the level of the cuisine at this new Dallas restaurant to be indicative of cuisine at the 1 star level.”

Dallas diners, this is huge.

Unpack this statement, and it says that De Lellis’ work elsewhere, likely referring to his executive chef job at Joël Robuchon Restaurant in Las Vegas some 1,200 miles away, spoke volumes about the work he has done at Mamani for fewer than two months. (De Lellis also helped at sibling restaurant Bar Colette in Dallas while Mamani was under construction.)

We should compare Michelin’s statement against its criteria when awarding stars. Though the company keeps much of its methodology a mystery, it has long said its critics use a five-point test while looking for the world’s best restaurants:

1. Quality of ingredients
2. Harmony of flavors
3. Mastery of techniques
4. Personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine
5. Consistency, both across the entire menu and over time

It’s possible four of these five items are achievable in under two months. But No. 5, consistency “over time”: How short is too short? Dallas Morning News readers and rule-followers have flooded us with comments, wondering why Michelin took such liberties with the time element.

Michelin confirmed it does not have a cutoff date for when restaurants are too new to be eligible for inclusion in the Guide. Mamani is just that great, we could assume.

We return, however, to criteria No. 4, the personality of the chef. De Lellis’ pedigree spoke volumes in just a few weeks. But, we should remind ourselves a Michelin star goes to the restaurant, not to the chef. Is that the case with Mamani? The Michelin inspector’s explanation makes it sound like De Lellis was a big part of the win.

“Of course the star belongs to our entire amazing team,” De Lellis said in a company statement two days after the award.

Some News readers have expressed empathy for a small number of other excellent Dallas restaurants that had nearly 365 days since last year’s ceremony to adjust and correct their menus, vying for Michelin attention, while Mamani got it so quickly.

But while Mamani amazed judges, other Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants could have, too. Mamani winning a star does not diminish another restaurant’s chances.

Tatsu Dallas, a Japanese restaurant in Deep Ellum, was the only other Michelin star recipient in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2025.

The News asked Michelin how many other restaurants across the globe were awarded Michelin stars within 2 months or less of being open. A spokeswoman said Michelin doesn’t keep that kind of data on the countless restaurants it has visited since the Guide started in 1900.

We are left with two takeaways. First, Mamani has an army of culinary talent at its new Uptown Dallas restaurant led by superstar chef De Lellis. Second, Michelin makes its own rules, and we are left to understand what we can. You decide whether you can accept what we can’t understand.

This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the Michelin Guide Texas. Read more about the restaurant picks in Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas.

Dallas attorney Tony Box is running to be the Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general, he announced this week, becoming the third member of his party vying to replace outgoing incumbent Ken Paxton.

Box, a first-time candidate, is an Army veteran, former FBI agent and former federal prosecutor who now works in private practice in Dallas. He will face former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and state Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas in the March 3 primary.

Paxton, who has led the office for a decade, is giving up his post to challenge U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

In a press release, Box said he was seeking to “bring decades of public service and law enforcement experience to an office plagued by corruption and political theater.”

“The AG should be protecting consumers, cracking down on fraud and partnering with law enforcement, but Ken Paxton has turned this office into a laughingstock,” Box said in a statement. “I’ve spent my entire career fighting corruption, prosecuting criminals and standing up to powerful people who abuse their positions. Texans deserve better.”

Box’s journey to running for attorney general began when he was 16 years old and got shot in the stomach while protecting a coworker from a robbery. The episode prompted him to “dedicate his life to the service of others,” he said in a press release.

After graduating from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Box entered the Army. He was deployed to Iraq as a judge advocate general, the military’s version of a lawyer, and served as an investigator for the Congressional Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped uncover $30 billion of waste and fraud, according to his campaign press release.

Box spent a decade as an FBI special agent, serving on the SWAT team and deploying as part of the agency’s September 11th response, he said. In the meantime, he went to law school at night.

In 2018, Box joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri handling tax investigations and prosecutions, according to his LinkedIn. In 2022, he joined the law firm Gray Reed in Dallas, where he represents businesses and “high net-worth individuals” in civil and criminal tax cases, white-collar defense and regulatory investigations.

“The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the state of Texas and the people of this state deserve a leader who is looking out for them, not corrupt politicians and their cronies,” Box said in a statement.

Across the aisle, four Republicans are competing to succeed Paxton as the GOP nominee: state Sens. Joan Huffman of Houston and Mayes Middleton of Galveston, former Paxton deputy Aaron Reitz and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin.