Michelin Guide Comes to New York City
February 23, 2005
The Tire Man Eats New York
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
NEW YORK restaurants, already on constant lookout for the critics, both professional and amateur, now have to contend with another group of reviewers: Michelin inspectors.
For the last five months these gastronomic undercover agents have been working on the Michelin Guide to New York City, the company's first hotel and restaurant ratings outside Europe. Michelin's green sightseeing guides have covered the United States since 1968.
This evening at Gotham Hall in Midtown, Édouard Michelin, the chairman of the French tire company that bears his name, is expected to announce plans for the 2006 New York guide. The book, to go on sale Nov. 15, will rate 500 restaurants in the five boroughs and 50 Manhattan hotels.
"A New York guide is part of an old dream of mine," Mr. Michelin said in a telephone interview from his company's headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, in central France. "It goes back 20 years. At first there was France, then Europe, but now there's the world, and New York is the gateway. New York makes you discover other cuisines."
The new guide, a softcover book selling for $15.95 and larger than pocketsize, will be aimed not just at the international travelers for whom the red guides have become gastronomic bibles but also at Americans, especially New Yorkers. To make this guide more user friendly, in addition to the symbols the company uses to erase language barriers, there will be more text, with photographs of each hotel and of the "restaurants of distinction," with the coveted stars.
The star system retains Michelin's link to car travel: restaurants that are "a good place to stop" receive one star. Those worth "a detour" are given two, and those worthy of a "special journey" are awarded three. There are five levels to show luxury in restaurants, represented by crossed spoons and forks. A symbol, "Bib Gourmand," is for good value.
The 2004 guide to Paris listed 399 restaurants, with only 77 receiving stars, including 10 that were given the top rating of three. In all of France 27 restaurants received three stars in 2004. (The 2005 French guide goes on sale next week.) Even though European chefs and restaurateurs are not permitted to publicize their ranking, they strive for the stars as an affirmation of talent and a ticket to success. Demotions can be devastating.
"An American Michelin guide is incredibly exciting and a testimony to the evolution of our dining culture," said Clark Wolf, the restaurant consultant. "It will be very powerful if it measures restaurants according to dining standards here, and doesn't just judge the wall sconces."
With that in mind Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the Michelin guides, said that in France three stars have come to mean a certain level of luxury, but he is hoping to change that perception. "The stars refer only to what is on the plate," he said. "There is no French barometer when it comes to evaluating restaurants."
But what exactly does it take to reach for the stars?
"Chefs often ask what they need to do to get three stars," said Mr. Michelin, 41, a great-grandson of a company founder. "But we have no published criteria."
No matter the standards, the Americans are trained to think of four stars, not three, as restaurant nirvana.
"Michelin will have to do a bit of explaining with only three stars at the top," said Eric Ripert, the chef and a partner of Le Bernardin, a restaurant that had two Michelin stars in Paris when it moved to New York. "Most of the newspaper reviewers here go up to four stars." The highest ranking in The New York Times is four stars, given to restaurants its critics consider "extraordinary."
Michelin said it has stationed five full-time experienced inspectors in New York, not all French, but all well traveled, including one who had lived in Japan. (Because of the travel involved, most inspectors are men who often dine alone.) In addition the company is hiring at least two Americans full time. Mr. Naret said the American prospects are familiar with New York restaurants but are not well known by restaurateurs and chefs. The company will send them to Europe for training.
In New York, Mr. Naret said, the inspectors are visiting each restaurant on a preliminary list of 1,200 (with 60 percent having been covered so far). The places that make the cut for the final 500 will be revisited at least once more. After an inspector has completed his dining visits, another inspector follows up, presents his calling card, asks to see the kitchen and obtains more details. Hotel inspectors request a backstairs tour after having paid their bills.
Mr. Michelin said the company's guide division makes money, even though the red guides do not pay their way.
Michelin began publishing guidebooks in France 105 years ago, first giving travelers practical information like gas stations, emergency services, hotels and maps. Restaurants were added in 1923. Though stars had been used to designate price categories, they finally became symbols of quality in restaurants in 1933. There are now red guides to 20 countries.
Ariane Daguin, an owner of D'Artagnan, the foie gras company, whose family's restaurant in Auch, France, once had two stars, said she hoped Michelin would be accepted in New York. "I'm not being chauvinistic," she said. "But it will be the most objective, more objective than Zagat, or than the newspaper and magazine reviews, which are personal opinions."
Michelin may send several inspectors for a consensus on star ratings. Editors write the text from inspectors' notes.
But Daniel Boulud, the chef and an owner of several New York restaurants, including Daniel, said he thought that Michelin would have "a long road to travel" to be accepted by New Yorkers. "It will have no impact on Zagat," he said, of the popular survey guides owned by Tim and Nina Zagat.
Michelin does seek readers' opinions, however. The company receives about 45,000 letters and e-mail messages a year, vets them to avoid publicity campaigns and vendettas, and communicates the comments to its inspectors and editors.
The identities of the inspectors who evaluate the restaurants and hotels are jealously protected, which is why there was such a dust-up last year when one of them, Pascal Remy, wrote a tell-all book in France about the often dreary life of a Michelin inspector. Mr. Remy's book did make clear that the inspectors judge everything, from the welcome at the door to the presentation of the check. Mr. Wolf said that the big hurdle for New York restaurants would be service.
Mr. Naret said the first New York guide was a pilot project. If it is successful, the company hopes to add other American cities, perhaps starting with San Francisco, and have teams of American inspectors.
Mr. Michelin said he had misgivings about going ahead with the New York project, especially because of the recent anti-French sentiment in the United States.
"I've had some anxiety about how the guide will be perceived here," he said. "But I do not believe that there will be a negative attitude toward the guide, first of all because Michelin, as a company, has a reputation for being reliable. And today our guides no longer see all food through French eyes, the way they might have 20 years ago when the Michelin guide was an ambassador of French cuisine."
Expect the guidebook to play down its French heritage."Our marketing department suggested that we call this guide the second-best gift from France to New York," Mr. Naret said. "I told them, 'Don't you dare.' "
The Tire Man Eats New York
By FLORENCE FABRICANT
NEW YORK restaurants, already on constant lookout for the critics, both professional and amateur, now have to contend with another group of reviewers: Michelin inspectors.
For the last five months these gastronomic undercover agents have been working on the Michelin Guide to New York City, the company's first hotel and restaurant ratings outside Europe. Michelin's green sightseeing guides have covered the United States since 1968.
This evening at Gotham Hall in Midtown, Édouard Michelin, the chairman of the French tire company that bears his name, is expected to announce plans for the 2006 New York guide. The book, to go on sale Nov. 15, will rate 500 restaurants in the five boroughs and 50 Manhattan hotels.
"A New York guide is part of an old dream of mine," Mr. Michelin said in a telephone interview from his company's headquarters in Clermont-Ferrand, in central France. "It goes back 20 years. At first there was France, then Europe, but now there's the world, and New York is the gateway. New York makes you discover other cuisines."
The new guide, a softcover book selling for $15.95 and larger than pocketsize, will be aimed not just at the international travelers for whom the red guides have become gastronomic bibles but also at Americans, especially New Yorkers. To make this guide more user friendly, in addition to the symbols the company uses to erase language barriers, there will be more text, with photographs of each hotel and of the "restaurants of distinction," with the coveted stars.
The star system retains Michelin's link to car travel: restaurants that are "a good place to stop" receive one star. Those worth "a detour" are given two, and those worthy of a "special journey" are awarded three. There are five levels to show luxury in restaurants, represented by crossed spoons and forks. A symbol, "Bib Gourmand," is for good value.
The 2004 guide to Paris listed 399 restaurants, with only 77 receiving stars, including 10 that were given the top rating of three. In all of France 27 restaurants received three stars in 2004. (The 2005 French guide goes on sale next week.) Even though European chefs and restaurateurs are not permitted to publicize their ranking, they strive for the stars as an affirmation of talent and a ticket to success. Demotions can be devastating.
"An American Michelin guide is incredibly exciting and a testimony to the evolution of our dining culture," said Clark Wolf, the restaurant consultant. "It will be very powerful if it measures restaurants according to dining standards here, and doesn't just judge the wall sconces."
With that in mind Jean-Luc Naret, the director of the Michelin guides, said that in France three stars have come to mean a certain level of luxury, but he is hoping to change that perception. "The stars refer only to what is on the plate," he said. "There is no French barometer when it comes to evaluating restaurants."
But what exactly does it take to reach for the stars?
"Chefs often ask what they need to do to get three stars," said Mr. Michelin, 41, a great-grandson of a company founder. "But we have no published criteria."
No matter the standards, the Americans are trained to think of four stars, not three, as restaurant nirvana.
"Michelin will have to do a bit of explaining with only three stars at the top," said Eric Ripert, the chef and a partner of Le Bernardin, a restaurant that had two Michelin stars in Paris when it moved to New York. "Most of the newspaper reviewers here go up to four stars." The highest ranking in The New York Times is four stars, given to restaurants its critics consider "extraordinary."
Michelin said it has stationed five full-time experienced inspectors in New York, not all French, but all well traveled, including one who had lived in Japan. (Because of the travel involved, most inspectors are men who often dine alone.) In addition the company is hiring at least two Americans full time. Mr. Naret said the American prospects are familiar with New York restaurants but are not well known by restaurateurs and chefs. The company will send them to Europe for training.
In New York, Mr. Naret said, the inspectors are visiting each restaurant on a preliminary list of 1,200 (with 60 percent having been covered so far). The places that make the cut for the final 500 will be revisited at least once more. After an inspector has completed his dining visits, another inspector follows up, presents his calling card, asks to see the kitchen and obtains more details. Hotel inspectors request a backstairs tour after having paid their bills.
Mr. Michelin said the company's guide division makes money, even though the red guides do not pay their way.
Michelin began publishing guidebooks in France 105 years ago, first giving travelers practical information like gas stations, emergency services, hotels and maps. Restaurants were added in 1923. Though stars had been used to designate price categories, they finally became symbols of quality in restaurants in 1933. There are now red guides to 20 countries.
Ariane Daguin, an owner of D'Artagnan, the foie gras company, whose family's restaurant in Auch, France, once had two stars, said she hoped Michelin would be accepted in New York. "I'm not being chauvinistic," she said. "But it will be the most objective, more objective than Zagat, or than the newspaper and magazine reviews, which are personal opinions."
Michelin may send several inspectors for a consensus on star ratings. Editors write the text from inspectors' notes.
But Daniel Boulud, the chef and an owner of several New York restaurants, including Daniel, said he thought that Michelin would have "a long road to travel" to be accepted by New Yorkers. "It will have no impact on Zagat," he said, of the popular survey guides owned by Tim and Nina Zagat.
Michelin does seek readers' opinions, however. The company receives about 45,000 letters and e-mail messages a year, vets them to avoid publicity campaigns and vendettas, and communicates the comments to its inspectors and editors.
The identities of the inspectors who evaluate the restaurants and hotels are jealously protected, which is why there was such a dust-up last year when one of them, Pascal Remy, wrote a tell-all book in France about the often dreary life of a Michelin inspector. Mr. Remy's book did make clear that the inspectors judge everything, from the welcome at the door to the presentation of the check. Mr. Wolf said that the big hurdle for New York restaurants would be service.
Mr. Naret said the first New York guide was a pilot project. If it is successful, the company hopes to add other American cities, perhaps starting with San Francisco, and have teams of American inspectors.
Mr. Michelin said he had misgivings about going ahead with the New York project, especially because of the recent anti-French sentiment in the United States.
"I've had some anxiety about how the guide will be perceived here," he said. "But I do not believe that there will be a negative attitude toward the guide, first of all because Michelin, as a company, has a reputation for being reliable. And today our guides no longer see all food through French eyes, the way they might have 20 years ago when the Michelin guide was an ambassador of French cuisine."
Expect the guidebook to play down its French heritage."Our marketing department suggested that we call this guide the second-best gift from France to New York," Mr. Naret said. "I told them, 'Don't you dare.' "
posted by Michael Mahle at 12:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home