MICHELIN STARS

The Michelin Guide is a guide book published by Michelin (the tires manufacturer) for more than a century. It is the oldest European hotel and restaurant reference guide which awards excellence and whose initial aim was to boost the demand for cars, and thus for car tires. Its first edition was published in 1900 but, it was in 1926 when it started to award fine dining establishments (initially with one star and later with the hierarchy of one, two and three stars).

Michelin inspectors are anonymous people in charge of recommend consumers the best hotel and restaurant experiences, “they are collectively responsible for rating more than 40,000 hotels and restaurants in over 24 countries across three continents” (Michelin). About the method and process, they dine out and rate their experience according to: quality of the products, mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef in his cuisine, value for money, consistency between visits and core values. Only after paying their bill inspectors may introduce themselves and ask for more information.

The stars honor the world´s best restaurants and getting them could change the fate of an establishment. In order to deliver accurate information to the consumers they use an extensive system of symbols to describe each place in just two lines (they also include a brief description of the place and two-three culinary specialities).

Example and Meaning of some Michelin Guide's Symbols

As a hallmark of quality, it can mean success or failures. Among the advantages of owning a star (or more) one can find status, prestige, more trust from consumers and high respect. The seal is a guarantee of food created to a very high standard with the best ingredients. It can also represent a competitive advantage since some clients – especially the wealthiest – will prefer to visit this kind of establishments rather than a similar one without the star, it is all about perception.

However there are also cons as the pressure put on chefs to earn the star, or to maintain the star once they earn it. According to the restaurant critic, Jay Rayner, “there is nothing worse than a chef cooking for stars rather than his customers” and this has to do with customer satisfaction, a restaurant should not forget who is the client and their needs. There is also a lot of pretentiousness around the seal and many critics about its poor standards (e.g. revision times), slow reactions on changes at restaurants (e.g. food, service, atmosphere, etc.), the rating biased towards French cuisine (indeed France owns more stars than any other country) and lack of transparency around the process and the decisions.

Other notable restaurant guides are: Automobile Association, The Good Food Guide, Gault Millau, The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and Forbes Travel Guide.

References:

About Travel (2016). What are the Michelin Stars? Available from: http://foodtravel.about.com/od/Restaurant-Reviews/fl/What-Are-the-Michelin-Stars.htm

Michelin (2016) The Michelin Stars. Available from: http://www.michelin.com.sg/SG/en/michelinredguide/MichelinStarRatingSystem.html