Michelin Guide
The Michelin Guides (French: Guide Michelin [ɡid miʃlɛ̃]) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900.[1] The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few restaurants in certain geographic areas. Michelin also publishes the Green Guides, a series of general guides to cities, regions, and countries.
Categories
: "A very good restaurant in its category" (Une très bonne table dans sa catégorie)
: "Excellent cooking, worth a detour" (Table excellente, mérite un détour)
In 1900, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on the roads of France. To increase the demand for cars and, accordingly, car tyres, car tyre manufacturers and brothers Édouard and André Michelin published a guide for French motorists, named Guide Michelin (Michelin Guide).[2] Nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the guide were distributed. It provided information to motorists, such as maps, tyre repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, hotels, and petrol stations throughout France.
In 1904, the brothers published a guide for Belgium similar to the Michelin Guide.[3] Michelin subsequently introduced guides for Algeria and Tunisia (1907); the Alps and the Rhine (northern Italy, Switzerland, Bavaria, and the Netherlands) (1908); Germany, Spain, and Portugal (1910); the British Isles (1911); and "The Countries of the Sun" (Les Pays du Soleil) (Northern Africa, Southern Italy and Corsica) (1911). In 1909, an English-language version of the guide to France was published.[4]
During World War I, publication of the guide was suspended. After the war, revised editions of the guide continued to be given away until 1920. It is said that André Michelin, whilst visiting a tyre merchant, noticed copies of the guide being used to prop up a workbench. Based on the principle that "man only truly respects what he pays for", Michelin decided to charge a price for the guide, which was about 7.50 francs or US$2.15 in 1922.[5] They also made several changes, notably listing restaurants by specific categories, adding hotel listings (initially only for Paris), and removing advertisements in the guide.[3] Recognizing the growing popularity of the restaurant section of the guide, the brothers recruited a team of inspectors, who were always anonymous, to visit and review restaurants.[6]
Following the usage of the Murray's and Baedeker guides, the guide began to award stars for fine dining establishments in 1926. Initially, there was only a single star awarded. Then, in 1931, the hierarchy of zero, one, two, and three stars was introduced. Finally, in 1936, the criteria for the rankings were published:[3]
In 1931 the cover of the guide was changed from blue to red and has remained so in all subsequent editions.[6] During World War II, publication was again suspended. In 1944, at the request of the Allied Forces, the 1939 guide to France was specially reprinted for military use; its maps were judged the best and most up-to-date available. Publication of the annual guide resumed on 16 May 1945, a week after VE Day.[3]
In the early post-war years, the lingering effects of wartime shortages led Michelin to impose an upper limit of two stars; by 1950 the French edition listed 38 establishments judged to meet this standard.[7] The first Michelin Guide for Italy was published in 1956. It awarded no stars in the first edition. In 1974, the first guide to Britain since 1931 was published. Twenty-five stars were awarded.[8]
In 2005, Michelin published its first American guide, covering 500 restaurants in the five boroughs of New York City and 50 hotels in Manhattan. In 2007, a Tokyo Michelin Guide was launched. In the same year, the guide introduced a magazine, Étoile. In 2008, a Hong Kong and Macau volume was added.[3] As of 2013, the guide is published in 14 editions covering 23 countries.[3]
In 2008, German restaurateur Juliane Caspar was appointed the first woman and first non-French national editor-in-chief of the French edition of the guide. She had previously been responsible for the Michelin guides to Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The German newspaper Die Welt commented on the appointment, "In view of the fact German cuisine is regarded as a lethal weapon in most parts of France, this decision is like Mercedes announcing that its new director of product development is a Martian."[9][10]
Some South Korean government officials were unhappy about the accuracy of the 2016 edition's coverage of the country, which was added in return for 3.2 billion won (over US$1 million) from the Korea Tourism Organization.[11] In 2017, the Tourism Authority of Thailand agreed to pay 144 million Thai baht (US$4.4 million) over five years for the inclusion of their country.[12]
In 2022, the guide expanded to Canada, with guides covering Toronto[13] and Vancouver[14] in return for undisclosed payments from each city's local chapter of Destination Canada.[15][16]
The guide announced its first list of restaurants in the US state of Florida on 9 June 2022, after the state and city tourism boards in Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, agreed to collectively pay the company up to US$1.5 million.[17][18] The guide awarded a single two-star ranking and fourteen one-star rankings, and 29 Bib Gourmands.[19][20]
In late 2022 the guide expanded to Vietnam, Malaysia, Estonia, and the United Arab Emirates in return for undisclosed payments.[21][22]
In February 2023, the Israeli Tourism Ministry announced a bid to bring the Michelin guide to their country in return for a payment of €1.5 million.[23][21]
In 2023, the guide expanded to several cities in Colorado (Aspen, Beaver Creek Resort, Boulder, Denver, Snowmass Village, and Vail) that paid between US$70,000 and US$100,000 on top of a state contribution; other cities (Aurora, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction) declined to participate.[24][25] In September 2023 the Michelin Guide also expanded to Atlanta, in return for a payment of US$1 million over three years.[26][27]
In the early 2020s, Michelin began requiring certain countries which had previously received reviews to pay for continued coverage. Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic agreed to do so.[28][29]
: "High-quality cooking, worth a stop" (Cuisine de qualité, mérite une halte)
: "Excellent cooking, worth a detour" (Cuisine excellente, mérite un détour)
Green Guides[edit]
The Michelin Green Guides review and rate attractions other than restaurants. There is a Green Guide for France as a whole, and a more detailed one for each of ten regions within France. Other Green Guides cover many countries, regions, and cities outside France. Many Green Guides are published in several languages. They include background information and an alphabetical section describing points of interest. Like the Red Guides, they use a three-star system for recommending sites, ranging from "worth a trip" to "worth a detour", and "interesting".[122]
Controversies[edit]
Allegations of lax inspection standards and bias[edit]
Pascal Rémy, a veteran France-based Michelin inspector, and also a former Gault Millau employee, wrote a tell-all book, L'Inspecteur se met à table (The Inspector Sits Down at the Table), published in 2004. Rémy's employment was terminated in December 2003 when he informed Michelin of his plans to publish his book.[123] He brought a court case for unfair dismissal, which was unsuccessful.[124]
Rémy described the French Michelin inspector's life as lonely, underpaid drudgery, driving around France for weeks on end, dining alone, under intense pressure to file detailed reports on strict deadlines. He maintained that the guide had become lax in its standards. Though Michelin states that its inspectors visited all 4,000 reviewed restaurants in France every 18 months, and all starred restaurants several times a year, Rémy said only about one visit every 3+1⁄2 years was possible because there were only 11 inspectors in France when he was hired, rather than the 50 or more hinted by Michelin. That number, he said, had shrunk to five by the time he was fired in December 2003.[123]
Rémy also accused the guide of favouritism. He alleged that Michelin treated famous and influential chefs, such as Paul Bocuse and Alain Ducasse, as "untouchable" and not subject to the same rigorous standards as lesser-known chefs.[123] Michelin denied Rémy's charges, but refused to say how many inspectors it actually employed in France. In response to Rémy's statement that certain three-star chefs were sacrosanct, Michelin said, "There would be little sense in saying a restaurant was worth three stars if it weren't true, if for no other reason than that the customer would write and tell us."[125]
