Isn't Michelin the tire guy?

Isn’t Michelin the tire guy?

Yes, it is.

I had always thought that Michelin was just the people who made tires, and it wasn’t until I heard it repeatedly referenced on shows like Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, and Top Chef, did I finally look it up, to see who this Michelin person was and why he gave out stars. Turns out Michelin the French company who makes tires in the United States also had a big business of confidential reviews of restaurants and hotels. According to the 2009 Michelin Guide, their aim is “ongoing commitment to proving travel and mobility, we do everything possible to make vacations and eating out a pleasure.” Makes sense, a tire company would want you to take road trips right?


The thing that makes Michelin better, in my opinion, than the ZAGAT, or reading a restaurant review from a critic is the anonymity of the review. A restaurant chef can see Gael Green (how could you not recognize her with those crazy hats) or James Oseland and give them the best seat in the house and make sure their food is perfect. ZAGAT guide is based on people writing in their reviews, so one persons standard can be different from another. Michelin takes great steps to make sure that their reviewers are anonymous and remain anonymous. This ensures that a regular Joe Schmoe will get the same service as those fancy restaurant reviewers. The other thing that makes Michelin very reputable is that they are independent. They choose restaurants to review not based on the Benjamin slipped to them in a letter, but made for the benefit of “the reader alone.” “Decisions are discussed by the inspectors and the editor with the most important decided at the global level.” Inclusion in the guide is also free of charge; no one pays to have their review written. As quoted from their website,

“Michelin has been in the business of evaluating and recommending restaurants and hotels for over a century. We employ full-time professional inspectors who anonymously visit restaurants and hotels, and evaluate them on a range of criteria. Our evaluation process has been honed over time to identify consistently high-quality establishments to suit a range of budgets and across a range of styles and cuisines. If our inspectors are impressed by a restaurant or hotel, they visit the establishment again. And again. It is this sort of obsessive research that makes the MICHELIN Guide such a reliable source of recommendations. No matter what the occasion, we think you'll find that the MICHELIN Guide will help you make the perfect choice.”

Other benefits include the fact that the selection ranges from low to high price range so it’s not just the super fancy restaurants and hotels that end up in the guide. They update every year, (usually, see* below), so you don’t go to a place to find out that the chef changed and the food is now horrible, and they are consistent. Michelin uses the same criteria in Paris that they do in New York. They also classify a restaurant for comfort, (which includes service and décor), and for food quality, (which are where the stars come in to play). The classifications for “comfort” range from, one-little spoon and fork which represents quite comfortable, two little spoons and forks represents comfortable, three-very comfortable, four-top class comfortable, five-luxury in the traditional style. The stars which are the things all chefs want, range from one star which means “very good cuisine in its category” two-excellent cuisine, worth a detour, and three which is the top honor of “exceptional cuisine worth a special journey.”



*For my project I will be working out of the 2009 Las Vegas restaurant and hotels edition. Because of the recession, Michelin decided to only come out with an edition for Las Vegas every two years, but New York and San Francisco still have yearly editions. There are actually more than twelve Michelin rated restaurants in Las Vegas, but for this project, I decided to pick twelve making it a one year project. There are actually thirteen- one-Michelin star restaurants, three-two star restaurants and only one-three star restaurants in Las Vegas, the amazing Joel Robuchon. (Who is actually on the list twice, one for Joel Robuchon with three stars, and one for L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon which received one star, both located in the MGM Grand.) The first one was actually picked for me by my wonderful boyfriend. For our anniversary, we went to Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn resort. The review will be coming soon….

Thank you for reading,

The Wanna-Be Foodie