i know about this but i never understood why no one thought “why do i give a shit what a tire company says about food”
Well it just so happened that the reviewers were people who knew fine dining, and the awards DID drive business to restaurants.
So it could have been a joke from the start, but accidentally became a prestigious award, that happens to be becoming a joke.
The flaw in your reasoning is that you are assuming that everybody whom Michelin could hire is a tire expert. Michelin is just as capable of hiring food critics. They hired eminent critics and experts to write travel guides, and when people realised that, hey, their reviews are actually accurate, because they had incredibly strict criteria on which to base their rating system, people understandably began to build trust in that system. The fact that Michelin still doesn’t seem to have sold out is why there’s such longevity to it: they have no reason to make their criteria any less strict (quite the opposite, and I’ve never been to a restaurant that was even mentioned in the Michelin guide that wasn’t some of the best food I’ve ever experienced). The title of most eminent food review is theirs to lose, so they can’t afford to betray that, especially in a world with increasingly-ready access to information. There’s nothing that can outmatch the brand loyalty and name recognition.
Kinda similar to how an Irish beer brewery became the arbiter of world records. Yeah, the Guinness Book Of World Records is that Guinness.
Though what was their angle? Credibility for their advertisements or was there something else?
Settle bets and drinking games.
The reason was literally so they could have some interesting facts for customers to talk about at the “pub” 😭
Lol, I gotta admit that there’s something adorable about that approach to capitalism. Like they are actually adding some value in their attempt to attract sales (both this and the Michelin star system), unlike these days where it’s more of a race to the bottom and someone doing something shitty to their product is an excuse for their competition (or “competition”) to do the same rather than a chance to capitalize on having a product without that shitty aspect (or both, brag about being better while they develop the version that isn’t better and then never mention it again).
I’ve only been to one Michelin star restaurant, but it was easily one of the best meals I’ve ever had and I only ever knew about it because I decided I wanted to see if there was anything to the fuss about those stars. Though ymmv as a friend of mine who has been to a lot more of them says they can be hit or miss; better than average on average but can still have bad days.
It is my understanding that the Guinness Book Of World Records was started because of a discussion/argument in a pub that had no resolution, a couple of blimey blokes fussing about what’s the longest bridge in the world or something, so publishing a book of world records would allow that kind of thing to be settled. It then became a marketing gimmick; people start mentioning Guinness in contexts they never would otherwise. The book itself has been a sales phenomenon, and then they started selling the records themselves.
So…Guinness sells the service of awarding a world record, sometimes at exorbitant prices, and often to brutal dictators. The likes of North Korea, Qatar etc. are fond of these. Kim Sick Fuck will order 90,000 people to dance at gunpoint and Guinness will send a white chick in a stuffy blue skirt suit with a framed certificate, for tens of thousands of euro, to certify it as World’s Largest Interpretive Dance.
I wonder if they make more money doing that or selling Bud Dark?
Edit to add, off the top of my head I can think of the Guinness World Record book being mentioned offhand in media as diverse as Happy Days, The Brady Bunch, House and The Abyss, among others.
Fun fact, the michelin man gets his shape from the way rubber looks when the sap is drying on a (probably congolese) rubber worker’s arm. They would wrap it around their wrist and push it up the arm where it would scrunch up into rolls like the michelin man has.
Michelin Man
*Bibendum
that’s diabolical
Saying the Pledge of Allegiance during school was a tradition that was invented by a company which made American flags, they did it as a sales tactic.
America doesn’t really have a culture it just has capitalism.
Holy shit really? Do you have a source for this?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pledge-allegiance-created-sell-flags/
Flags and magazines lol
Well damn. Amusing how sometimes something can be both funny and sad.
goddammit.
Oh there’s definitely more. Do you want me to regale you with the tale of how the Red suited Santa Coke invented came to be? Or do you want to keep thinking a holiday about giving gifts wasn’t invented by corporations? How about how giving pre-made cards on a variety of holidays became to be a thing because of Hallmark?
Greetings cards predate Hallmark by quite a lot.
I never said they invented greeting cards. I said they normalized giving them on a variety of holidays that previously were less commonplace for cards. For example the person that created Mother’s day fucking HATED Hallmark.
damn
You’re certainly a riveting conversationalist. I’ll leave you with this. How influential on the design of our very cities has the auto industry and oil industry been? Are our cities designed around using as little fuel as possible, or the exact opposite?
Stop jacking yourself off, this is a public post
Damn, I was just starting to really work the shaft.
And the best part, Michelin is French. It was French capitalism that created this.
I was so confused when I realized that the restaurant thing is the same as the tire company. I’d assumed my whole life that it was just random that both happened to be associated with the same name. Honestly it still doesn’t make much sense to me.
It’s ok, I was today years old when I learned about this. Also about the Guinness World Records. “Wtf ever” is how I’m handling it
Aaaand… the flavors of the food have vanished.
How so
French-style cooking is quite infamous of “entrying” other cultures. Hungarian here, people often try to minimize seasoning in the food they cook, because they saw some French star chef on TV doing things that way, often they’re going even further. I.e. instead of replacing bouillon cubes with soup stock, they just use tap water, jet still claim it’s more “luxurious cooking” that way.
I dont cook pasta in water I used glacial ice
That’s not it at all.
Multiple scientific studies done by the big food corps have shown, consistently, that the majority of people in the world prefer blander food.
You may not personally, but multiple double blind studies have shown that the average Joe prefers blandness, and bland unspiced food tends to sell better than the opposite.
I think there’s some context missing here, otherwise cooked unsalted chicken would be a common treat (it’s not). Do you mean it more like “1 or 2 spices is better than 5?”
Know how McD’s they have both a real egg vs the flat yellow thin precooked one? In a blind taste test most people prefer the flat one because it’s less ‘eggy’. I mean strong spices, most people prefer blandness, at least in the US.
he was lettening cars.
This was from the cool time when companies used their money to make things even if they’re only tangentially related to their business. The mickelin guide and the gennis book of records are cut from the same cloth.
Now companies just spend money on stock buybacks and other financial chicanery.
mickelin
gennis
Jesus H. Christ
Jebus A. Crist
He’s talking positively about major corporations, are you really surprised at the spelling and grammar?
i see what you’re getting at, however along the same vein this seems like a good time to point out that it literally says in her name that she’s not a he :P
Thx ❤️
Missed the pronouns, I guess my bad for misgendering. I’m a child of the 90s, male, female, or whatever spectrum you fall on, it’s still largely dude and bro in my vernacular.
To be fair , the restaurant reviewed need to be decent at serving their menu at minimum in order for this to work.
Gave away the joke with the title
It is weird when you think about it.
Similarly, the Guinness book of records was started by Guinness the beer brand to settle pub arguments.
The early ones are fantastic too. They go into real depth on a lot of the records.
Yeah. I always assumed the name Michelin was just a coincidence. I was incredulous when I found out that it’s the same company. Genuinely weird thing for a tire company to do.
They did not start it for the reason in the comic. That is a complete fabrication.
It was an internal list of restaurants to wine and dine fine clients, and it was a massive success and many people who wanted to know where to take their own clients kept trying to find out about the Michelin list
Nah, originally it was just a complementary map for those who bought tires. They ended up just being the most reputable reviewer with their star system that it became a prestige thing afterwards.
Michelin also edited road maps and built milestones to help early time drivers find there way on the roads !
I miss the days when companies realized that improving everyone’s lives meant they’d have more time and money to spend on their products
I always knew because my parents had this book with the tire guy on it:
I don’t remember if it mentioned restaurants in it as well, but the association with them and travel guides made the connection for me, I guess.
Nah that’s the green guide. It’s focused on sight seeing and cultural attractions.
The red guide is the restaurant one.
That’s a cool looking booklet.
I mean, when you’re a tire company and not a lot of people have cars or good reasons to put lots of miles on them…
Michelin is the exact opposite of AMC
You expect AMC theaters and the AMC channel to be the same thing
They’re not
Does it actually make money for them somehow? Or does it just keep their name in the public’s collective mind?
It helped them sell more tires, it associated the tires name with higher quality, it made money by itself, and it pushed the mascot into an icon capable of making money by itself.
All for something that sounds like a dr. Doofenshmittz plan.
Maybe it associates their name with high quality as well.
You have to remember that Michelin is a French company, so the Michelin star guide was originally about getting the French public to drive to French restaurants.
The French car-owning public… In 1900. So basically getting the ultra rich to drive to very expensive restaurants.
Even a restaurant with one star nowadays is a $60 seat minimum. The best restaurants in the world are expensive.
They also have given stars to hole in the walls and hawker stalls. Like this one
There’s one in Hong Kong that is famously inexpensive for a 1 star, like $10-15 USD for a meal of dim sum. I think I read somewhere it’s the cheapest 1 star restaurant in the world.
Is that the one in the airport? It’s fantastic.
The one I had in mind was Tim Ho Wan in Sham Shui Po, but they have restaurants throughout the city. But looking at the current Michelin Guide, I see it’s just “Michelin recommended” as opposed to 1 star. I’m not sure if the rating has been changed since I went or if I’m mixing it up with a different one, but either way it was very good and service was crazy efficient! Gonna have to check out the one in the airport if I’m ever in HK again. The whole food scene in HK is great, never had a bad or even average meal there.
They were famous for referencing good restaurants, not only stared ones.
The state/county/province/whatever pays several million dollars for the guide to judge its restaurants.
Its a very valuable tourism and service industry development tool.
Shrugs. I have never eaten at a starred restaurant and I have never specifically purchased tires from Michelin.
I have, because they’re amazing tires for my climate- the cross climate ones.
Meanwhile the Michelin OEM tires on my car were the worse tires i ever had. Didnt last 20k miles and they didnt have much grip on dry pavement from day one.
OEM tires are engineered for gas mileage, not usefulness. It’s all about the epa rating
You’d think after ford and firestone was sued for faulty tires they would change that.
I have both accidentally eaten at a Starred restaurant and unintentionally bought their tires. Happened to eat at a restaurant around the corner from a hotel in Spain that was Starred and only found out after. And got the garage to put new tires on and asked for the not totally cheapest but affordable and got their All Seasons.
Michelin tires are fine, I bought many of them because my favourite tire place sells a shitton of heavy truck tires from them so they have great discounts. And I’ve eaten at a starred restaurant because it was my friends’. Haven’t loved the latter tho.
They make a bunch of money selling the guides.
It’s become a whole side business.
It’s leeching money. The fine dining bills are through the roof. The cost of the guides, that few people actually buy, stand in Pqle comparison of having to buy multiple courses in the most expensive restaurants in the world.
Got a source for your claim Michelin loses money on the guides?
The source is the podcast ‘no such thing as a fish’, which is generally well sourced.
The quote in particular is from a Chicago chef, and it’s localized. However the sales of the book themselves are marginal considering the cost of the system.
A bit of a tangential aside, but I always disliked that podcast name. Fish is a reasonable morphological and ecological term and the fact that people have tried to stretch it into a phylogenetic term is silly. Morphology is a perfectly legitimate way to describe something; it just gives you a different set of information.
Yeah it’s a bit of an unfortunate name. They call it ‘fish’ for short, which is a bit contradictory too, as there now is a thing called fish.
I don’t think they previsioned the shows succes
I would think it would be really hard for them to tell if it’s working or not, but at this point the restaurant ratings are kind of their own institution and there would probably be a backlash if they shut it down.
The cost of eating in the finest establishments in the world, together with hotels, air-fare and double blind secrecy makes that it’s a net money sink.
All that food sampling has made his body lumpy and bloated.
And ribbed for her pleasure
