Michelin Guide or how a tire manufacturer became a culinary expert

Many of you probably know that the French tire manufacturer Michelin also evaluates the quality of restaurants.

Do you know how a tire manufacturer suddenly became an expert in the field of culinary and catering?

It all started in 1891, when brothers Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, who made bicycle tires, decided to make tires for cars.

At that time, cars were not yet so common, which is why the production of car tires did not bring tangible profits. That is why André Michelin began to popularize cars and car culture, for which he developed the Michelin Guide, first published in 1900.

The first Michelin Guide was a map that marked everything that a motorist might need on the road, in particular car gas stations, car services, hotels and, of course, restaurants.

Year by year, the number of cars became more and more, against the background of which the number of roadside restaurants increased, differing from each other in the quality of service, the quality of cooking and, accordingly, the level of prices.

So in 1920, André Michelin came up with the idea to give restaurants a quality rating, or rather, evaluate them by price category and indicate it in the Michelin Guide using a flower-shaped star. The most expensive and high-quality restaurants were marked with such a star, and the cheapest ones were not marked at all.

It is noteworthy that until 1920 the Michelin Guide was distributed absolutely free of charge.

In 1926, the criteria for assessing the quality of restaurants changed and they began to be evaluated not so much by the price level, but by the quality of service, the attractiveness of the interior and the general atmosphere, but the main criterion was the quality of cooking.

In 1930, there were three quality rating stars awarded to restaurants, and the more stars a restaurant has, the better it is.

Since then, the criteria for assessing the quality of restaurants has not changed, and the first restaurant in history to receive three Michelin stars was the Gordon Ramsay restaurant in London, owned by now very famous chef Gordon Ramsay.

Currently, the Michelin Guide is not quite a guide in the usual sense of the word, but rather a guide to expensive restaurants with their detailed description, which is incredibly difficult and very prestigious to get on the pages.