In France, chefs belong to the category of artists. In France, there is a world-renowned and long-established institution that authoritatively appraises these artists and their creative places—restaurants: "Michelin".
Michelin is a long-standing French authoritative appraisal agency that specializes in evaluating the catering industry. In 1900, the founder of Michelin Tire published a guide for travelers to choose restaurants on the road, namely "Michelin Red Book". "Baodian" is regarded as a treasure by "gourmets" and hailed as the European food bible. Later, it began to assign stars to French restaurants every year.
The "Michelin Guide" is known as the European food bible, and it is undoubtedly authoritative in the catering industry. It is the tire company called Michelin who publishes it.
In 1900, under the advocacy of the company's founder Andri Michelin, the Michelin Tire Company launched a simple and convenient manual. At first, it was mainly to provide some practical information for drivers, such as recommendations on vehicle maintenance, recommendations for driving directions, and the addresses of hotels and restaurants, and so on. Later, this booklet with a red cover began to give stars to French restaurants, and it gained the trust of readers due to its rigorous review system and became famous.
Those who can become the inspectors of the Michelin Guide are experts in gourmet food, and their work always follows the following four principles:
1. Conceal your identity and visit restaurants or hotels to eat and stay in person, and give scores
2. Make sure to appear in any restaurant on the guide. , The hotels are carefully selected;
3. The bill is paid by oneself;
4. The guide is updated every year to ensure the accuracy of the information.
In the second half of the last century, the selection of restaurants and hotels in the "Michelin Guide" expanded from France to the entire Europe, from Ireland to Turkey, from Sweden to Albania, leaving the footprints of mysterious Michelin inspectors.
The "Michelin Guide" currently has 70 full-time inspectors. Their identities are kept secret to the outside world. The only thing that is well-known is their traditional and harsh commonality. Take star rating in a restaurant as an example. From the moment you enter the door, you will display your ability to observe six ways: what is the taste of the decoration, the quality of the tableware, and the attitude of the waiter is not humble or overly enthusiastic? Even the posture of service was seen by them, followed by a series of judgments on cooking and serving skills. On average, each inspector conducts 240 food tastings and 130 accommodation inspections in restaurants every year, and about 800 visits and inspections are completed. For restaurants or hotels with stars, patrons will be more frequent. If necessary, they will have 12 meals in the same restaurant within a year. In the 2004 edition of the Michelin Guide, 49 restaurants were rated as three stars, of which 27 are in France and 22 are in other European countries.
Restaurants that appear in the Michelin Guide must first obtain a knife and fork mark. This mark is the guide's basic evaluation criteria for restaurants, ranging from the highest five to one, indicating the comfort of the restaurant. This is based on the restaurant’s hardware facilities, furniture supplies, services, cleanliness and the maintenance of the surrounding environment. In front of some restaurants, there is a Michelin portrait of a villain. This is the "Bibi Deng Gourmet" logo, indicating that this restaurant is cheap and good.
Michelin chef look
The selection above is the Michelin star, from one star to the highest three stars, mainly for the cooking level. The Michelin Guide defines the asterisk like this: a star is a particularly excellent restaurant in the same style of eating; a two-star restaurant’s culinary skills are very clever and it is worth a detour to eat; and a restaurant with three stars has orders. The delicacy that people will never forget is worthy of your "flying" meal. Such restaurants usually have been observed by Michelin for at least a few years. If the standards have been maintained at a high level, they will eventually get three stars.
The elements of star rating are the quality of the raw materials used in the restaurant, the techniques used in cooking, whether different flavors are well integrated, the consistency and innovation of cooking, and whether it is value for money. Asterisks appear to be very sparse in a guide. Restaurants with more than two stars also have particularly strict requirements on decoration and service. Restaurants at this level have at least 4 sets of knife and fork signs.
The Michelin Guide, which has an annual circulation of more than 550,000 copies, has a star rating that has a great impact on the business, image and popularity of the restaurant. Therefore, the process of star rating is very rigorous: the inspector goes to a restaurant secretly. After paying the bill, you can identify yourself to the restaurant and request a visit and inspection. Visit all parts of the restaurant with the company’s manager, especially the back kitchen where guests cannot enter. According to a chef who has received a Michelin star rating, if you dare to step forward and ask, "How do you evaluate us?" They will say, "Very good, very good", but they may give you a score. Make you fainted disappointed. Once the inspection is completed, the inspector will not be allowed to appear in this restaurant for several years to ensure the fairness of the next inspection.
Whether to award a star is a joint decision of multiple inspectors. All inspectors who have inspected the same dish in the same restaurant shall evaluate the restaurant in the form of a report within a certain period of time and provide the basis for the evaluation. If the opinions are not uniform, a second round of evaluation is needed until the final decision can be made. Every year or 18 months, Michelin will re-score restaurants that have been awarded a star.
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