In the past few years, the concept of "Michelin-starred cuisine" has become more and more familiar in China. Sometimes people think that a restaurant is too expensive, and they may also say, "It's so expensive, do you think you are Michelin?" Restaurant?"

It seems that more and more people are beginning to associate "expensive", "delicious" and "Michelin", but friends who don't understand this will definitely wonder, "Michelin is not the company that sells tires." Why is it up to them to judge whether it’s delicious or not, and why is it so popular?”

So this time we will answer this question and let everyone understand what Michelin and "Michelin Gourmet" are all about.

How did Michelin, which sells tires, start rating restaurants?

As we all know, Michelin is a famous company that produces tires. The company has made great contributions to the development and progress of modern society. For example, it launched the first removable bicycle tire in 1889 and launched the first bicycle tire in 1895. The first pneumatic tires for cars, from the perspective of a company, Michelin can be regarded as "a hundred years of experience and outstanding contributions." In addition to excellent performance in one's "own job", for those who focus on food, when talking about "Michelin", they may first think of "Michelin-starred restaurants".

Michelin's evaluation of food comes from the publication "Michelin Guide" it publishes. In fact, the original purpose of the "Michelin Guide" was very simple, just to let people drive out more to look for it. Just something to eat.

Because the automobile tire industry had not started very long at that time, people were not yet in the habit of driving to travel or driving to distant places to find food, so we took advantage of the International Exposition held in Paris in 1900. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Michelin has integrated information on restaurants, maps, gas stations, hotels, etc. into a booklet. This will allow more people to have more opportunities and willingness to drive out, and tires will be consumed faster. Wouldn't Michelin's business be better?

With the development of Michelin, the red "Michelin Guide" has become more and more famous and influential. More tourists follow the above guidance to find restaurants to taste delicious food, and also More and more restaurants are paying attention to what is said about them in this manual. Michelin also seized this opportunity very well. They began to form a dedicated food appraisal team to continuously explore and try more restaurants, making the "Michelin Guide" more and more perfect.

It was not until 1926 that stars were officially used as a level to judge the quality of restaurants, and thus the much-talked-about "Michelin-starred restaurants" were born.

Are all Michelin-starred restaurants delicious? What do the different star ratings mean?

There are three standard levels of real Michelin star restaurants, namely one star, two stars and three stars, which represent different cooking levels and degrees of recommendation. Let’s take a brief look at them below.

One Michelin star: a relatively high-quality cooking level. If you drive by, it is worth stopping to try this restaurant.

Two Michelin stars: Excellent and excellent cooking level, it is an excellent restaurant not to be missed and worth the drive.

Michelin three stars: excellent and outstanding cooking level, it is worth arranging a special trip to try the restaurant.

In addition, forks and spoons are used to represent different levels of dining comfort. One pair of forks and spoons represents the "basic comfort" of the passing line. The more forks and spoons, the better the dining comfort, with a maximum of 5 The auxiliary spoon represents top-notch luxury comfort, which is judged based on the restaurant's environment and service.

Michelin’s star rating is mainly composed of several parts, such as: the level of ingredients, cooking technology and taste, innovation level, whether the cooking level can be stably maintained, etc., in addition to publicity and operation, In addition, it is also thanks to Michelin’s “elusive” food tasting team, which makes restaurants and chefs dare not slack off. Therefore, in the past hundred years or so, Michelin-starred restaurants have become more and more influential, and in the past few years, they have also begun to explore restaurants in China.

Outside of Europe, "Michelin restaurants" only have a certain reference value

Although Michelin is highly respected in many countries, if a restaurant is rated as a "Michelin-starred" restaurant After that, it will become famous, but nothing is absolute. For example, for Chinese food, the rating of the "Michelin Guide" only has a little reference value.

The food culture of the so-called "Michelin Restaurant" originated from France in Europe. Although French food is also world-famous and highly praised, and there is no distinction between high and low food culture, there are differences in food culture. Sex is huge. It can be said that any kind of food culture is not just the dish itself. Without the local humanities, products, history, eating habits and other factors, most of the charm of any food will be eliminated.

So the "Michelin Restaurant" food evaluation method based on European food culture must have limitations. Although Michelin's food tasting team is composed of people from different regions around the world, The criteria for judging are also determined by hard conditions such as ingredients, cost performance, cooking skills, level of innovation, etc. However, as long as people are human, they will have their own subjective ideas, personal taste differences, different choices from different standpoints, etc., so the Michelin Guide 》The recommended restaurants are a good reference, but they are not absolute judgments.