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The Michelin Red Guides: French Tourism
hotels, but in a period before there were many restaurants in provincial France,
the guide had no category for restaurants per se. In 1923, the Michelin guide began
to include restaurants. “In a certain number of important cities where the tourist
might stop simply to have a meal, we have noted the restaurants that have been
indicated as serving good food [nous avons indiqué des restaurants qui nous ont
été signalés comme faisant de la bonne cuisine].” They were as follows:
*** Restaurants de premier ordre [First-class restaurants]
** Restaurants moyens [Average restaurants]
* Restaurants modestes [Modest restaurants] 38
Michelin thus began ranking restaurants at the same time that it began to list them,
much as it already listed hotels by level of comfort and amenities. From the outset
the company thus took for granted a notion widespread in interwar France; there
was a clear hierarchy of restaurants in France and elsewhere, one that could be
discerned and reported to the traveling public. It was not, however, clear in 1923
what the relative weights of the surroundings versus the quality of the food were
in the determination of the rankings. As interesting, while soliciting information
from guide users to perfect the list, Michelin distanced itself from these initial
rankings with the passive construction, “qui nous ont été signalé,” implying that
Michelin was doing little more than repeating reports it had received.
The Michelin system evolved rapidly in the interwar years. In 1925, the
company instituted five categories for restaurants, which corresponded closely
with the gradations established for hotels. The introduction to the rankings was
the same as in 1923, including that passive expression “qui nous ont été signalés
comme faisant de la bonne cuisine”:
*...* Restaurants de tout premier ordre – grand luxe
[First-class restaurants – real luxury]
*..* Restaurants de très belle apparence – cuisine recherchée
[Well-appointed restaurants – meticulous cuisine]
*.* Restaurants renommés pour leur table [Restaurants renowned for their
food]
** Restaurants moyens [Average restaurants]
* Restaurants simples, mais bien tenus [Simple but well-maintained
restaurants]. 39
In the meantime, hotels “possédant une table renommée [possessing renowned
cuisine]” received a single star or, in 1927, a diamond. 40 That is, hotels were ranked
by their level of comfort, but then received an additional notation if their food was
considered particularly good. In 1927, the stars with periods denoting restaurants
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