• Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
      74·
      1 month ago

      Not too long after the automobile started gaining popularity, they started releasing a sort of driving guide, basically cool road trip ideas to get people using their cars more. Part of this guide was rating restaurants. After a while the guide part fell off, but the restaurant ratings stuck around.

      Until today when nobody remembers the guide but the restaurant ratings are the most prestigious awards in the entire industry.

    • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
      34·
      1 month ago

      Michelin wanted people to drive more, because people driving wore out their tires meaning more tire sales for Michelin. They created a travel guide that included a star system for restaurants that were worth travelling to, eventually settling on the 3 star system where 1 star was worth a stop along your route, 2 stars was worth a detour along your route and 3 stars is worth a dedicated trip to eat at.

        • bss03@infosec.pubEnglish
          4·
          1 month ago

          I once saw a plaque that claimed the hotel was a “6-star”. It was a nice hotel, sure, but it made it clear those “stars” mean very little.

        • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 month ago

          The 5 stars of ratatouille might have been an anachronistic shorthand of good quality based more on how so much of what the average person is familiar with is a 5 star rating system (think product reviews on Amazon, app reviews on Google play/app store, driver ratings on Uber etc)

          Like, I imagine people have an understanding that Michelin stars are a thing but don’t know what those stars mean other than more stars is more gooder. And to muddle it up even more in the present day a single chef can have more than 3 stars because that chef owns multiple restaurants. (See British shouty chef’s 17 Michelin stars)

    • thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org
      13·
      1 month ago

      it isn’t this for sure but it is very much advertising gone good

      Michelin tires would put out road maps with advertisements and they started to include destinations with restaurant reviews in them, that was like the biggest critical review that a restaurant could get back then. So they took it really seriously

  • frog@feddit.uk
    22·
    1 month ago

    Before reading the last panel, I thought this was about a chef pissed off about a Michelin review so he decides to review their tires.

  • tetris11@lemmy.ml
    2·
    1 month ago

    Michelin: what are we even doing anymore?

    CEO stuffing his face with a cordon bleu: We make fucking tires!