Tokyo has unseated Paris as the world's culinary capital, according to Michelin Guides, the French bible of gastronomy.

The famed guidebook series, published by the tire company of the same name, announced a Tokyo edition Monday — its first outside Europe and the United States.

Michelin's Tokyo guide awarded 191 stars to 150 restaurants in the Japanese capital, the most number of stars awarded in any city. Previously, Paris had the most stars, at 65.

Eight restaurants in Tokyo, including two sushi eateries, received Michelin's highest three-star rating. But Paris can still claim to have the most top-rated restaurants, with 10.

Michelin also crowned 82-year-old Jiro Ono of Sukiyabashi Jiro sushi restaurant in central Tokyo as the world's oldest three-star chef.

"Tokyo is a shining star in the world of cuisine," Michelin Guides director Jean-Luc Naret said at a press conference in the capital, after announcing the picks to gasps from hundreds of Japanese reporters gathered there. He declared Tokyo "the world
leader in gourmet dining."

"We found the city's restaurants to be excellent, featuring the best ingredients, culinary talents and a tradition passed on from generation to generation and refined by today's chefs," Naret said.

A team of undercover inspectors — three Europeans and two Japanese — spent a year and a half visiting 1,500 of Tokyo's estimated 160,000 restaurants to decide on the ratings, according to Michelin. Michelin rates restaurants on excellence in cooking, service, decor and upkeep.

There were so many top restaurants that all entries in Michelin's Tokyo edition have at least one star, a first for any city, Naret said. Five of the eight awarded top honours served Japanese cuisine, while three were French restaurants.

The entries in the Michelin Guide Tokyo, which goes on sale Thursday in English and Japanese, were expected to ease local skepticism that the French can be the best judge of Japan's culinary traditions.

"The French do not understand anything about sushi and are so far behind in handling fresh fish. So how can they judge us?" Yoshikazu Ono had told the Associated Press in March when the Tokyo guide was announced. Ono is a chef at Sukiyabashi Jiro and son of Jiro Ono.

The first Michelin guide was published in 1900 as a handbook for French motorists.