The Michelin star restaurant in its original version resembles not a star, but a flower or a snowflake. It was proposed more than a hundred years ago, in 1900, by the founder of the Michelin company, which initially had little to do with haute cuisine. The company at the end of the nineteenth century supplied tires for bicycles, and later for automobiles. Today it is an enterprise that includes 69 plants with a staff of 130 thousand people, which produces tire products for the above vehicles, as well as for motorcycles and airplanes.
The company first produced tires
The second area of the company’s activity is the issuance of Via Michelin guides and directories, among which the most famous and sought-after is the Red Guide, a restaurant rating. In its first editions there was information that travelers needed when visiting France, including the addresses of hotels, eateries, parking lots and restaurants, the most expensive of which were marked with a sign from which the Michelin star "grew".
The composition of the rating does not change for decades
Michelin rating is a fairly conservative technique, as changes in it are extremely rare. For example, the first adjustment took place more than a quarter of a century after its creation - in 1926, a single Michelin star in the directory began to mean not the most expensive institution, but a restaurant with high-quality cuisine. A little later, two more positions with two and three stars appeared in the ranking. And more, since the beginning of the 30s of the last century, the assessment system has not changed.
Today restaurants with Michelin stars can be divided into three categories - one, two or three stars, where one means that the cuisine in this restaurant is one of the best in its type. Two stars - the cuisine is excellent, you should go here even having changed your tourist route, and three stars - for the sake of such an institution it is worth making a separate trip. However, modern experts argue that this system is somewhat outdated, since it worked at a time when the restaurant business was more tied to roads and travel on them.
There are more than stars in the directory
The Michelin star is not the only symbol contained in the directory of gourmet establishments. Here you can also find signs in the form of crossed forks and spoons, which evaluate not the kitchen, but the level of comfort of the establishment. Two of these signs mean that the restaurant is comfortable, and five (maximum number) - that is luxurious. In addition, the guide presents establishments without stars at all, but which have an assessment of the quality of the kitchen in the form of a pictogram of Bib’s head - the symbol of the Michelin company of Bibendum. This sign indicates a good quality food at a reasonable price (about 35 euros). Also in the directory there are restaurants without stars, but marked with the sign of two coins, which mean the opportunity to eat for less than 20 euros.
Inspectors visit institutions secretly
Probably many would like to know how to get a Michelin star. But the valuation technique is a firm's trade secret. It is only known that the Michelin guide team employs 90 inspectors (70 in Europe and 20 in Asia and America) who are hired by a competition that includes dinner with the chief inspector, after which applicants must draw up a report. Before this, the contestants must work more than one year in the service sector and be familiar in all processes in this direction. After the entrance exams, the selected specialists go through a six-month course, where they learn how to assign a rating to restaurants. All data is kept in deep secret and for disclosure, their inspector Remy Pascal (the author of the book “The Inspector sits at the table”, 2003) was instantly dismissed, and the book itself did not receive wide recognition abroad (it was not translated, for example, into Russian tongue).
Losing a star means a lot
But the details of the process, in general, nevertheless became public. It is known that Michelin inspectors travel the world, visiting up to a thousand restaurants a year on anonymous grounds (!), Where they make conclusions about the quality of the cuisine and other restaurant data (atmosphere, service, prices, etc.). Based on the impressions they receive, they write reports that they consider at the head office in Paris at a collective meeting. Here they assign stars and evaluate the condition of restaurants that received stars earlier. If the institution has changed for the worse, then the badge of honor can be selected. And this always entails a certain outflow of customers and a loss of reputation. So, the French chef B. Luazo committed suicide only because of rumors about a possible reduction in the stars of his institution from three to two (which did not happen).
The restaurant must have original cuisine.
Michelin stars in Russia or another country can only get establishments with author's cuisine. Therefore, restaurants need chefs with their original dishes, which will help to obtain a rating determined specifically for the institution. If the chief cook, who is the author, leaves work, then he personally loses the stars and his employer. The rating is known for its conservatism, therefore it is rarely possible to find new conceptual establishments, but there are only good restaurants with really tasty food, perhaps somewhat prim and designed for wealthy people. A feature of the guide is that the restaurants included in it do not have the right to indicate somewhere the number of stars received by them so that the client finds out this information only from the rating itself. Otherwise, the institution may be deprived of its stellar "awards".
French appraisers prefer French
Despite the fact that the company is trying to refute its commitment to French cuisine, it is clear that there are more three-star restaurants in Paris than in twelve other European countries. In addition, it is in France that most of all restaurants of all stellar magnitudes - more than six hundred. Many three-star establishments were found in the city located thousands of kilometers from France - Tokyo. There are nine establishments with three stars, about twenty five - with two or more hundreds with a rating of one star. Michelin stars in Moscow are not officially assigned to any institution. French inspectors turned out to be more supportive of institutions in the Czech Republic - Allegro Prague in Prague, and Ukraine, where local businessmen opened the Prague restaurant La Verranda. In addition, it is worth noting the institution under the Green brand, opened in Geneva by A. Comm.
There are no Michelin-starred restaurants in Moscow, but there are cooks
What can Moscow restaurants offer connoisseurs of gourmet dishes? With Michelin stars, in fact, there are many foreign experts who came from foreign institutions marked with these eminent symbols. Among them, Cipollino can be noted, where Andrian Kellas works, having passed through many high-quality food establishments around the world, including through the one-star Bacchus restaurant in Mallorca.
Chefs with Michelin stars even work in the suburbs. For example, Jan Lejar, who oversees the River Palace fish restaurant, also “looks after” the kitchen at the Cheval Blanc institution, located eight kilometers from Rublevo-Uspensky highway on its own site with a 50-hectare original forest. Foreign masters can be found next to the Garden Ring (L'Alberto), where N. Canutti, formerly the chef of the three-star London establishment Alan Ducas in Dorchester, works. There are Slavic families among eminent cooks, for example Taras Zhemelko, who managed to learn from Richard Corriganu during ten years of work in this area, to be an assistant chef in the legendary Japanese Nobu, where he became sous-chef. Today Taras works in an institution called "Kai".
If you do not have the opportunity to visit the restaurants of Paris with Michelin stars, then you can find samples of diverse haute cuisine in the same Moscow. At Spelacotto, you can get acquainted with the work of Chef Scott Denning, who had previously worked in London (La Gavroche, two Michelin stars). A master from Japan, Kobayashi Katsuhiko, has been working in the “Near East” and has been specializing in Japanese desserts for more than 20 years. In Jeroboam, where Hanz Winkler (three Michelin stars) “conjures”, you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the times of the Russian Empire and try “pigeons in a crisp” or “crab in saffron”.
In some Parisian institutions you need to book a table for the year
Fans of eating abroad should take into account that in some renowned western restaurants there is a line for a year-long table, they can be closed for school holidays, sometimes in August, as well as on Mondays and Sundays. In particular, such a regime has a three-star institution “L'Ambrozi”, located in Paris in a 17th-century house, which serves fine pastes and seafood in an elegant design. It gathers politicians, owners of large enterprises, so the bill is from 250 euros and above. One of the oldest French restaurants, founded in 1784 (Grand Vefour), also has three stars. The institution is located in the gardens of the Palais Royal and has in its interior only genuine antiques from the Empire, many of which are so valuable that they are in special display cases. The account at the institution starts from 160 euros according to the “a la carte” system.