The Michelin Guide: Stars

The Michelin Guide awards restaurants between one and three stars, and they are coveted. Getting one, or one more, can create a legend; losing one can result in significant heartbreak.

The Guide itself says that “certain establishments deserve to be brought to your attention” because of the quality of the cuisine served. Since the Michelin Guide started out as a guide to road-touring, the stars are not only associated with quality, but with driving value.

3 stars means the restaurant merits a special trip. The food, wine, decor and service will be exceptional and you should expect to pay and you should probably leave the kids at home. There were 20 3 star restaurants in the 1995 Michelin Guide and there are considerably more today.

2 stars indicates the restaurant deserves a detour. Everything will be top-notch, if not perfect, and you should not expect a bargain.

1 star means that if its on your way, you should stop. For the kind of restaurant it is, a one star establishment should serve very good food in a pleasant environment. But, the Guide warns readers not to compare the very-fancy “de luxe” restaurant that has one star to a simpler restaurant “where you can appreciate fine food at a reasonable price.” From the 1995 Michelin Guide (red).

About The Michelin Guide

Most drivers have probably heard of the Michelin guides. This guide provides drivers around the world what services to expect in every route they take. The services can be car mechanics, petrol stations and hotels.

This information is very useful to new drivers or even experienced drivers in a new route. How did Michelin Company get in the business of providing guides to drivers around the world? What is the story behind it? The guide has now transformed the hotels and restaurants business. Let us take a trip down memory lane.

How The Michelin Guide Came to be

When you first read the title, you expected me to talk about tires and mechanical stuff. I completely understand, Michelin is a famous brand in the tire industry. Originally, the Michelin guide was meant to be used as a marketing strategy. To market their tires and propose different mechanical and refilling services to drivers en route.

The authors of this guide included something that is very important to drivers, and it totally changed the guide. Food services are very vital in any route. This guide is changing the hotel industry. It is now considered as an authoritative guide in the mining industry.

The story dates back to the year 1900. This is when the first guide was published by two brothers who had a rubber factory. They manufactured tires for cars and bicycles. The two men are Andre and Edouard Michelin. The original guide was meant for about 300 motorists around Clermont, France. As stated earlier, it was meant as a marketing ploy. To entice more drivers to buy more cars and by extension, more tires.

The idea behind this was to encourage drivers to tour more dining hotels and in the process wear out their tires. This Michelin guide was a good marketing strategy. The original guides were given to motorists free of charge. But as the number of cars rose, probably due to increasing demand. The number of guides increased drastically to keep up. It eventually spilled over to different countries across the world.

Restaurant ratings

Production of the Michelin guides stopped in the year 1920, during World War 1. Restaurant ratings were introduced during this time. In 1926, the first specific star ratings for France’s dining establishments was introduced. After a few years, the 3 stars Michelin ratings took over. Here is what the stars meant at the time.

• 1 star– a good restaurant
• 2 stars– excellent foods
• 3 stars– exceptional food and cuisine

In the end, the guide becomes an integral part of traveling that people willingly paid for it. To get the latest restaurant ratings. The cover changed from blue to red. The guide was so marketable that Michelin employed inspectors to rate the restaurants.

These inspectors were actually former chefs. The publication was actually relied upon by tourists as a guide to the best hotels. The Michelin guide actually spilled out of France and into the neighboring countries in Europe. It gained a massive following with readers making recommendations on how to improve accuracy.

Fast forward

The guide now covers more than 20 countries with 14 editions. It covers the hotel sector in these countries. They diversified it a bit, to cover hotels and GOURMET RESTAURANTS that offer excellent foods at a moderate price. This has really increased the scope of the Michelin guide in the culinary sector.

By 2005, it was available in the American cities of Chicago and New York. So stiff is the guide increasing competition in this sector that in 2003, a French chef shot himself. This was due to speculations that his restaurant could lose its 3-star ratings. That’s according to the straitstimes.com

Though the Michelin guide is now almost 117 years old, it is more famous than ever. More and more people depend on it for information on the latest restaurants and the kind of food offered. The authors went ahead and published the green guide edition specifically for tourists. Some restaurants have disputed their rating methods. Terming it an unfair business practice.

The Michelin Guide Now

The Michelin guide has evolved. Today it covers more restaurants and countries than in the past. There is room for growth, as the population increases, so does the number of restaurants and dining establishments. It is a good guide for tourists visiting foreign countries. It has also promoted creativity in the culinary sector, with each establishment competing for a 3-star rating. This is the short history of the Michelin guide and how it is changing the food and drink industry.

List of Michelin Starred Restaurants in North America 2019

The Michelin Guide has ranked all of the most exciting dining spots around the world for us to know and visit and has just released it’s 2019 list.