The best-kept secret in France is how Michelin decides each year which restaurants should be awarded one or more stars. Out of 529 restaurants acknowledged in the 2008 red book, 435 have a single star. Changes at the highest level are rare: for example, only one restaurant, Le Petit Nice in Marseille, has been upgraded to three star status.

Michelin are quite ruthless in their ratings and openly admit that just one bad meal can cost a restaurant a star, even if it is its only star. However, that bad meal has to have been served to one of its anonymous inspectors, who are all graduates from hotel school. Because restaurants are quick to spot lone professionals, and to try to give them special treatment, inspectors often take family or friends with them to throw the maitre d’ off the scent. Sometimes their companions have no idea that they eat for a living, and the inspector can never, on pain of dismissal, disclose the verdict on a restaurant ahead of publication of the guide.

The 80 inspectors employed by Michelin are spending more time in the countryside than in the cities these days, looking at smaller establishments serving authentic traditional cuisine and finding young chefs with individual flair. It may sound a wonderful job but inspectors must undergo a year’s training on a pittance and often experience 16-hour days of driving, tasting and writing.

 From our May 2008 e-newsletter