Michelin Stars - The Restaurant Sector

The story of the Michelin Guide, the most authoritative restaurant guide in the world, began somewhere between 1888 and 1900, when the brothers André and Édouard Michelin decided to put together a guide for petrol stations. It included information on repairing and changing tyres, plus a few notes on car mechanics. The purpose of the guide was to encourage people to buy cars (at the time, some statistics suggested France had no more than 3,000 cars in total). The goal was purely commercial: more cars on the road meant more tyres sold, and the Michelin tyre factory would prosper.

The Shift to the Restaurant Sector

In 1926, the guide expanded its scope by awarding a single star (later evolving into the three-star system). The work was initially confined to France, then gradually spread to other countries around the world, with time lags between one country and another, and an interruption caused by the First World War.

Earning a star became the dream of every chef and restaurant owner, because it drove restaurant revenues up and gave the venue justification to raise its menu prices on the back of this prestigious recognition. It is comparable to an Oscar in the film industry or a Nobel Prize in the sciences. The reverse is also true: losing a star can send a restaurant’s revenues into decline. The benefits of this recognition aren’t confined to the restaurant alone; they extend to the touristic marketing of the city and country, as starred restaurants draw in visitors who love exploring culture through food.

How the Stars Are Awarded

It used to be rumoured that the brothers themselves (André and Édouard) travelled the world doing the assessments and awarding the stars, but this is inaccurate. The guide relies on numerous inspectors around the world (much like mystery shoppers) whose identities are kept anonymous. The date and time of their visit to the restaurant being assessed cannot be predicted, they are not authorised to speak to any media outlet, and they are not allowed to disclose their identity to anyone (to the extent that they are not even known to the guide’s own editorial staff).

No one knows when they will visit any given country, and many Middle Eastern countries are eager to see one of their restaurants earn this recognition. Some Gulf states have brought in chefs who already hold Michelin stars in the hope that their restaurants will appear in future editions of the Michelin Guide.

The Michelin Star Classification

The classification has three tiers, starting with one star, then two, with three stars being the highest possible rating:

One star (*): High-quality cooking in its category, a restaurant worth a stop.
Two stars ():** Excellent cooking, worth experiencing and worth building into your travel plans.
Three stars (*):** Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey (worthy of travelling specifically to experience).

Evaluation Criteria

One of the most important evaluation criteria is consistency: delivering the same level every time, every day. This is one of the most fundamental rules of customer experience and one of the most difficult to achieve, regardless of industry. There are other criteria too, such as the quality of ingredients (raw materials), creativity in cooking technique, the personality of the chef, cooking technology, and the harmony of flavours. The criteria pay almost no attention to the restaurant as a physical space or interior design. All that matters to the inspectors is the final product on the plate served and how it stands apart from competitors’ plates (restaurants within the same cuisine). Many other factors fall under the umbrella of customer experience: being warmly welcomed, not waiting long before being shown to the table you’ve reserved, all of which feed into the assessment of “value for money”.

This is why, when you search YouTube for most restaurants holding one or more Michelin stars, you’ll find that what they care about most is the plate itself, presented as if it were a work of art (an obsession with the finest detail). That is, also, one of the basics of customer experience. Portions in these restaurants are relatively small (some describe them as samples), but the experience of eating them is meant to transport you to another world.

Earning Recognition Is Only the Beginning

The challenge isn’t winning a Michelin star, it’s holding on to it. Stars can go up, come down, or be withdrawn altogether. Some restaurants earned one star and then improved and earned a second. Others lost their head chef, their standard slipped, and the star was withdrawn. That means every day, for these restaurants, is a day on which a Michelin inspector could potentially walk through the door. It puts the chefs under intense pressure year-round.

Losing or being downgraded is a genuine tragedy for chefs and restaurant owners. In 2003, the French chef Bernard Loiseau took his own life after his restaurant was downgraded in the Michelin Guide. Chef Sébastien Bras gave up his stars because of the weight of that responsibility. In a video he posted on Facebook, he said: “I have decided, with the agreement of my entire family, to begin a new chapter in my professional life, without the Michelin Guide’s award.”

Excellence is a daily way of life in three-star restaurants. This may explain why Japan has consistently been one of the top countries for three-star restaurants: excellence and mastery are woven into the cultural fabric.

Sustainable Gastronomy

A green star was added in 2020 (as a new classification) to recognise restaurants committed to sustainable gastronomy from several angles tied to responsibility towards the planet: a zero-waste target on surplus food and on the packaging used; avoiding all forms of plastic; the raw ingredients used in cooking and their nature (not including endangered species); their sources and suppliers (relying on local producers). This responsibility extends to using renewable energy sources in cooking to reduce the carbon footprint (CO2 emission levels), and so on.

The first edition of this new classification covered the Scandinavian countries: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland. The choice probably fell on them because of their leadership and progress in applying sustainability practices in general.

There are other types of classifications detailed in the Michelin Guide, but space here doesn’t allow me to list them all. I’ve focused on the sustainability star because I personally find it compelling. Readers can explore the other categories from an official source here.

How to Access the Guide

You can browse part of the guide’s content on its official website (https://guide.michelin.com). There are also many printed editions tied to specific countries or cities that contain far more detail, which you can buy online from Amazon. More than 30 million Michelin Guides have been sold, and these publications are likely the company’s largest revenue source.

In Closing

It is hard to summarise a century-long pursuit of excellence in just a few words, but expanding on the subject opens up many lessons. To every restaurant operating outside this organisation’s radar: pay close attention to the customer stars published across review and rating sites (especially Google Maps). These stars and the recommendations customers share are no less important than the stars given by Michelin inspectors. They have a major impact on a customer’s decision to try your restaurant for the first time or to come back again.

Primary Sources

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