Below: |
The Beginning |
Red Guide |
Green Guides |
Stars |
Scandal Sheet |
The 2006 Michelin Stars Adventure
The 2006 Michelin Guide (for France) comes out on the first of March. The news, though, precedes the official date by about a week, and the news for 2006 is the addition of a third star for the Maisons de Bricourt (chef Olivier Roellinger) at Cancale [map, SE], and the loss of another star Paris' famous Tour d'Argent, now a 1-star restaurant.
Still 26 three-star restaurants in 2006, and 70 two-star establishments. The number of one-star restaurants has increased from 402 to 425.
Paris' Lucas Carton (chef Alain Senderens) has moved from three to two stars, as the restaurant was changed to a simpler and less-expensive establishment.
Paris' La Table (chef Joël Robuchon) gained a second star.
Chef Didier Anies' La Coupole in Monte-Carlo [map] obtained its first star, as did his Alelier in Paris, a new style of dining around the bar.
A first star was awarded to L'Hostellerie de l'Abbaye de La Celle in La Celle, one of 13 "star" restaurants run by Alain Ducasse.
Four restaurants obtaining two stars are Chez Ruffet at Jurançon (a suburb of Pau in the Pyrénées [map]), Le Château de Beaulieu at Béthune (near Lille [map]), La Bastide de Capelongue at Bonnieux, and Le Flocon de Sel at Megeve (in the Alps near Mont Blanc [map]).
The Michelin Guide Began...
The first blue book of the "MICHELIN" guide was published by André Michelin in 1900. It was free back then, and intended as a practical guide for the early 20th-century French motorists. It listed the petrol stations across France, contained information on garages for the different "marques", where to get your Citroen or Peugeot repaired, where to find supplies and parts, and also where to find toilets, meals and accommodation along the way.
By 1920, the dining part had become so popular, Michelin established a team of anonymous inspectors, and started a new 3-category rating system for the restaurants. They took advertising out of the guide and began charging 7 francs for it. (Wikipedia says that a 1-star mark for good cooking was added in 1926, and the 3-category system began in the early 1930s.
Michelin Red Guide
In 1931 the blue cover was change to the now-familiar red. The famous Michelin Red Guide is available for other European countries (the Britian guide started in 1911) and as of 2006 for New York. Our focus here in Beyond is of course for the French Michelin Guide.
Although the Michelin red guides are filled with extensive information on hotels and restaurants, they're still very handy for motoring information. The town-center maps for towns and cities are excellent, and the guide still lists the automobile garages by marque.
An interesting antecdote has it that the early "worth a detour" or "worth a visit" notation for a restaurant or hotel had the ulterior motive of promoting additional tire wear, a significant factor in early 20th-century motoring.
Michelin Green Guides
Nothing to do with restaurant star systems, the narrow-format Michelin Green Guides are published for, and about, different regions of France, and for some major cities, From Paris to New York. Each guide has amazing information about the title subject, not only the sites and museums, but historical, geographical and any other information relevant to that place.
We were personally disappointed when, several years ago, the illustrations in the Michelin Green Guides changed from pen-and-ink line drawings to color photographs. Still, the green guides make fascinating reading, even if you're not intending to visit a place.
French Michelin-Star Restaurants
3-Star Restaurants
"Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" ("Une des meilleures tables, vaut le voyage").
In 1995, there were 20 3-star restaurants in France.
2-Star Restaurants
"Excellent cooking, worth a detour" ("Table excellente, mérite un détour").
In 1995, there were 77 2-star restaurants in France.
1-Star Restaurants
"A very good restaurant in its category" ("Une très bonne table dans sa catégorie").
In 1995, there were 445 1-star restaurants in France.
Bib Gourmand Restaurants
"Good meals at moderate prices". This sub-star category was started in the 1950s. The name "Bib" is not a reflection on needing to protect your front from messy eating, but "Bibendum", Michelin's Michelin-Man logo.
Scandal Sheet
Rumors and stories of lax inspections, bias and star-system drama have cropped up over the years, following the popularity and the enormous influence of the Michelin Guide.
Bias Towards French Cuisine
International food critics often shout that the Michelin rating system is inherently biased toward French cuisine. For a start, we would think that this is no doubt true to some degree, but rather obvious for a system that has grown up for over a hundred years in the French gastronomical world. Being non "experts", we find it difficult to see how comparitive tastes can be measured between cuisines of very different dining cultures — or why it should be.
Slow Inspections
There's a frequent complaint that the Michelin inspections and reviews are so slow that there's a multi-year lag between the quality of a restaurant and the published classification. That's a pretty serious consideration for the consumers, when it results in diners going to a restaurant for the menus of a few years ago.
A more serious complaint is that the inspection standards are actually very lax, and that each restaurant is visited about every 3.5 years, and not the 18-month average claimed by Michelin. This is from a 2004 book by Pascal Rémy, a former Michelin reviewer [1].
High Drama
An extra Michelin star, or the loss of one, can mean the difference to great fame and wealth or shame and failure. Whether the top chefs involved are the picturesque high-strung high-ego prima-donas they're painted by popular media or clear-eyed business and cold-hearted businessmen, the effects of a star change can be just as dramatic.
A recent drama was the February 2003 suicide of prominent French chef Bernard Loiseau, reportedly caused when he heard that his Côte d'Or restaurant in Saulieu, Burgandy, would be downgraded from three to two Michelin stars. Behind-the-headlines news, though, pointed out that M. Loiseau had a history of bipolar disorder, and that he was already despondent because his business was failing. After the fact, Michelin announced that they were not intending to downgrade the Côte d'Or, and later new reports attribued the suicide to an actual downgrade by the Gault Millau guide.
Sources:
Partial Sources:
• Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) has good background information.
• Andy Hayler (://www.homestead.com/andyhayler/) has food writer's perspective of the Michelin Guide, with related info on other (non France) countries.
1 - L'inspecteur se met à table, Rémy Pascal, 2004, Equateur, ISBN 2849900060.
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