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How Did Michelin Become the World’s Authority on Restaurants?
- pilatesfordogs 11y agoApparently major chefs don't care for the Michelin stars: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/09/top-chefs-michelin-stars http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/09/top-chefs-michelin...
- resu_nimda 11y agoThat seems like a somewhat inaccurate takeaway. A few of them "gave them back" because they didn't like the pressure and/or wanted to change their menu. Bourdain of course doesn't care much for them but he was the only one in the article that really took that attitude (and being a rebel is kind of his thing). Other chefs mentioned were devastated to lose them. There are certainly some misgivings about the organization and process but it seemed like most of them still consider a 3-star to be the top honor in fine dining.
- mturmon 11y agoIt's really a mixed bag. Michelin favors a certain type of place -- posh, traditional, French -- and doesn't know what to do with other cuisines. This could be OK if you are in France, or if you share that taste, but it doesn't translate well and doesn't serve many diners well. For a view of how this looks to a very adventurous and accomplished reviewer (look him up if you don't know), see Jonathan Gold's take here: http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/michelin-tires-2151006 http://www.laweekly.com/restaurants/michelin-tires-2151006 Teaser: "Michelin is usually one of the guidebooks I take with me when I visit France, although I tend not to use it much. In Paris, Patricia Wells and the Pudlo guide are better at pointing me to the kind of restaurants I like best; in the rest of the country, I prefer Gault Millau. Outside France, Michelin is all but useless — in most of Italy, you could probably find better restaurants by sticking a pin into a map than you could by following the guide, and while Gordon Ramsay’s supremely boring London flagship gets three stars, Fergus Henderson’s splendid St. John, a restaurant that visiting chefs head off to the second they land at Heathrow, has none."
- cooper12 11y agoDisappointingly, the article doesn't really explain the authority part, just how they came to review restaurants.
- anigbrowl 11y agoPresumably people largely agreed with the tastes of the reviewers.
- pascalmahe 11y agoCan't it be a simple case of being the first so widely distributed ? A quick skimming on Wikipedia shows that of the main guides showed today [1], only one other guide started at the end of the of the 19th century [2]. So probably a good example of the "Land Grab" strategy (from Spolsky, [3]), being the first to grow fast in a new(ish) market. Then they were the reference and that's a easier position to maintain than to grab. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant_rating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant_rating [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cuisini%C3%A8re_Cordon_Bleu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cuisini%C3%A8re_Cordon_Bleu [3]: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000056.html
- cooper12 11y agoI don't really buy that because its possible that the guide causes people to have high expectations and when they don't have a good experience they might blame circumstance or their own taste rather than the restaurant because the authoritative book couldn't be wrong could it? I was also reading in another article posted in the comments about how receiving a star can be life-changing to restaurants and it forces them to maintain the same level of quality, so the award causes positive feedback.
- asdfologist 11y agoI'm more curious as to why they are still relevant in this day and age of Yelp.
- krapp 11y agoPrestige, probably. Michelin stars are relevant as long as customers and reviewers are impressed by them.
- revelation 11y agoSouth Park actually had an episode on that recently.. "You're Not Yelping" (S19E04): Cartman considers himself the top online restaurant reviewer in South Park.
- CapitalistCartr 11y agoYelp reviews are uneven. Sometimes they are done by competent people paying attention, many times they are not. Crowdsourcing has its uses (I use Yelp for some things), but professional opinions definitely have their uses also.
- vacri 11y agoOnline crowdsourced reviews in general suffer from self-selection bias. If you have an acceptable meal that is neither outstanding nor terrible, what would drive the average person to review it?
- ISV_Damocles 11y agoA heart full of neutrality? http://40.media.tumblr.com/0ac5bd12e03fb4781c66b32d45a3da58/tumblr_nn3vx7omgl1tpri36o1_1280.jpg http://40.media.tumblr.com/0ac5bd12e03fb4781c66b32d45a3da58/...
- gopher2 11y agoAnyone can write a review on yelp.
- gyardley 11y ago
- negativity 11y agoMy god. I never realized that people used to actually dress up in suits made of inner tubes. Those pictures are surreal.
- pella 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelin_Guide
- sanderjd 11y agoThat's funny, I always assumed it was a different Michelin. Perhaps a French company by the same name.
- sgryzko 11y agoI had the same reaction when I realized that Guinness, the authority on World Records is the same company that makes the delicious Irish stout. Brilliant marketing. I think the story was that many pub arguments were about what was the biggest, fastest, most, etc. So Guinness decided to do some research on these records and publish it. I actually am one of the several hundred people to hold the record for largest hockey game (unless it's been broken recently) and apparently it's quite the racket. Organizations hoping to set records have to go through a lengthy application process, pay an adjudicator to witness the record, etc. Then, if they want it in the Guinness Book (as opposed to just online) they have to pay extra. Record holders can then pay for an official certificate so they can show their friends and family (which of course I did). Sorry for the wild tangent by the way. I now realize this has nothing to do with Michelin or restaurants.
- sanderjd 11y agoHa! I didn't realize that one was the same company either! From now on, I guess I'll switch to assuming that anything with the same name is actually the same company, no matter how seemingly unrelated. Good story, thanks for sharing.
- tylerpachal 11y agoI only realized when I watched Jiro Dreams of Sushi [1]. If I remember correctly there is a brief shot of his 5-Star Michelin plaque, which has the company logo on it. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1UDS2kgqY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1UDS2kgqY8
- rograndom 11y agoI went through a there and back again association with the relationship. When I first heard about the guide, I was pretty close to my guess about the tire company putting out the guide for travelers. Then I kept hearing about so and so got another MEE-sha-lawn star. This is from people who would pronounce the tires as MISH-a-lin and Porche as "porch". So thought that they must be separate. What with the fancy French pronunciation of their name. Not too long after I saw one of the guides from pre-WWII and realized that I was right from the beginning. I still catch myself saying MEE-sha-lawn and laugh to myself.
- 205guy 11y agoThe blog article had lots of nice historical images, but I think it missed 2/3 of the story: Michelin also made green guides with tourist information and highly accurate maps. The tourist guides were some of the first and cover pretty much every single place of interest in France (from natural attractions to cultural and historical monuments--chateaux and country churches). The maps are some of the most readable and complete in my experience. Thanks to these 2 publications, travelers in France are not at the mercy of the local chambers of commerce and roadside advertising.
- buserror 11y agoI agree, the "Carte Michelin" is a LOT more popular than the guide, for normal french people.