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Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu
Remember The Hundred-Foot Journey, the 2014 dramedy set in a tiny French village? Here, two warring restaurant owners, Helen Mirren and Om Puri, gradually come to acknowledge, accept and celebrate their differences? And how his talented son (played by Manish Dayal), after many a dramatic turn of events, trains under and earns her a much coveted second Michelin star? And, ever wonder how a tyre manufacturing company became synonymous with excellence in fine dining? A stroke of marketing genius is how!
To promote their newly designed product — air-filled tyres — the brothers Michelin, Edouard and Andre, hoped a helpful handbook would encourage French motorists to drive more, often, and further. Habitual of the cumbersome glued-on version up until then, the less than 3,000 or so car owners in France rarely ventured beyond the closest repair shop at the time. The first edition in 1900, distributed complimentary, offered essential information about boarding and lodging, with splendidly detailed road maps. It also obligingly included practical tips on how to install and care for their novel tyres.
In the early years of its existence, the Michelin Red Guide remained focused on product maintenance with invaluable tips for drivers. The inventory included pharmacies to tap for gasoline in the absence of gas stations back in the day, sun-setting timetables because highway lighting too was a convenience of the future, a directory of auto repair shops operational year-round, and listings of hotel-housed restaurants, minus ratings. By 1926, it had more or less taken on the guise of a classic travel guide, leading Michelin to introduce region-specific Green Guides so that the Red Guide could remain wholly centred on hotel and restaurant reviews.
Ever since, full-time subject matter experts called inspectors have anonymously eaten and judged their way across not just the length and breadth of France, but also the rest of the world. Today, recognised as the top honour of the culinary world, Michelin continues to retain its travel-related ancestry. A single star is awarded to best in their class restaurants worthy of a stop, two stars to detour-meriting excellence in cooking, and three to exceptional experiences that beg special trips. Evaluating criteria include quality of products used, mastery over cooking techniques and flavours, value for money, and consistency between visits. And while Michelin expects the food to reflect the helming chef’s personality, stars are never — contrary to stated belief — bestowed upon individuals.
Historically associated with nouvelle cuisine, when Joel Robuchon burst onto the scene with a starchy tuber in his wake, he put hearty back on the menu. His mashed potato recipe is widely acclaimed to be the world’s best. This rebellious Frenchman, who passed away last August, received 32 Michelin stars during the course of his illustrious innings as a celebrity chef and restaurateur — a feat unmatched thus far. Nothing better determines the magnitude of receiving the Michelin star than Gordon Ramsay himself admitting to having cried copiously when divested of both stars for his restaurant at The London in New York.
Aside from loss of prestige, being stripped of this honour hits commercial interests equally hard. Revised annually, the lack of mention could mean a drastic drop in Michelin-wielding food tourist footfalls. Yet, professionals cook on. In the recent years, international ventures of Indian chefs and restaurateurs have joined this elite club, too. Among others, Vikas Khanna for Junoon in New York, Mural Manjunath for Song of India in Singapore, and most recently, Garima Arora, the first Indian woman chef to be thus honoured, for Gaa in Bangkok. Meanwhile, India waits.
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