More Mainstream Michelin-Bashing
The Guardian Chimes In
Today’s takedown of the Michelin Guides comes from the Guardian. You can read it here if you already haven’t: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/apr/21/are-michelin-stars-a-blessing-or-a-curse-restaurants
The problem with nearly every Michelin-basher is the inability or unwillingness to put forth many of the negative events or aspects of the Michelin Guide phenomenon, as shown with the above. It’s understandable because who has the time to be obsessive about piercing the immensely self-serving and truth-shading words that come from the Guides’ headquarters in Bologne-Billancourt. Nonetheless, some of what the writer states bears repeating. As for the rest of it, I wrote this to the Guardian:
“Some of the points your writer makes are rehashes of seemingly every other Michelin-bashing article. Worth knowing about is that the Guides people are spooked by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants and generally the cult of the chef that has taken hold in the dining world. When the entity was Michelin Travel Partner, it lost money year after year. The tire company would love to find someone for the 40% it still holds. The Guide’s director Gwendal Poullennec has been accused of ageism as he has taken stars away from several chefs in France who were revered since the 1980s or 1990s. If a recent restaurant is a la carte only, the chances of gaining a star are close to zero. Most significant, however, is that Poullennec is unable to come clean about his revered inspectors. One full-time inspector costs at least 100,000 pounds a year, which accounts for chefs saying they haven’t seen a Michelin inspector in years. There are even instances of bloggers visiting restaurants to file reports for Michelin. As one of my aphorisms goes, ‘The least important aspect of gastronomy is gastronomy’”.
While I’m on the subject of casting a jaundiced eye on sacred cows, I saw for the first time a nicely-produced trio of YouTube videos made by “Forking with MIchelin”. Two of them aren’t about the guides, but rather two of the more high-profile restaurants of today—Noma and Sukiabashi Jiro.
I also shared the Guardian article. I agree there was little new material in it for those in the industry or for people who busy themselves with such things. My sense was that the vast majority of Joe Public and Guardian readers will not know or be familiar with those details shared in the article, so much of the content would be new for most of their audience. I did like that they went to other known writers like Andy for their POV. I also agree with you that Michelin is facing an existential crisis because of W50B. I would also add other Guides and Lists, but really the threat today is that Michelin is no longer the only game in town. There are other sources of truth now and when you couple that with the doubts about Michelin’s credibility and arguably limited and anachronistic POV, the brand is limping along. It reminds me a little bit of the Oscars over the last 10 years.