The founding mission of the Michelin Guide was to “foster a culture of travel and eating out.” It has since evolved from being a handy travel guide for road trips more than a century ago to a global bucket list for food aficionados.
In North America, there are Michelin Guides for New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; California; Florida; Colorado; Atlanta; Toronto; Vancouver; Mexico; Texas; and Quebec. A new guide, the American South, was announced in April, and will encompass Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and the preexisting Atlanta Guide.
Visiting restaurants: The Michelin Guide team selects restaurants for its anonymous reviewers, called inspectors, to visit in certain geographic areas. They write reviews about their experiences on several criteria, then meet with other inspectors to discuss which restaurants are worthy of stars. Inspectors visit a restaurant “as many times at it takes” to get a complete picture, but it’s a different inspector each time. They spread visits across seasons, lunch and dinner, and weekdays and weekends. There are roughly 120 Michelin inspectors, and all are full-time employees and former restaurant or hospitality professionals.
The criteria: A Michelin inspector is charged with rating a restaurant on five criteria: Quality of products, mastery of flavor and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef in the cuisine, value for the money, and consistency of the food between visits. What’s not on the official list to be considered? Ambience, decor and quality of service.
The stars: Restaurants are given one to three stars (or none) that need to be earned each year. One star means “a very good restaurant in its category,” two stars is “excellent cooking, worth a detour,” and three is “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” And yes, Michelin does take away stars. An important note: Michelin stars are awarded to restaurants, not individual chefs.
There are currently more than 3,600 Michelin-starred restaurants worldwide, while another 3,300 received a “Bib Gourmand,” an unstarred recommendation with an emphasis on value. Another “green star” confers an award for restaurants with a focus on the environment and sustainability (there are around 600 currently). More than 10,000 others are “selected” to be included in guidebooks.
Fun fact: Based in Paris, the first Michelin guide was handed out in 1900 by the founders of the Michelin tire company to create a demand for automobiles. In addition to maps and restaurant guides, there were instructions on how to change a tire.
Sources: Michelin and Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts
