Why a tire company is the judge of fine dining

[jaolo]

I often use the Michelin recommendation (no stars) to choose a restaurant when I am in vacation. In my experience, these restaurants are reasonably priced and they offer menus that go beyond the “mainstream” local food. For example, if you go to Rome, you’ll find hundreds really great restaurants cooking local dishes, but they all have more or less the same menus. The restaurant with the Michelin recommendation usually has a special dish, which you cannot find that easily in other ones.

[MedalionDS]

A fine upper scale dining experience... one never tires of

[vmd]

I’ve had the privilege of eating at a couple of starred restaurants- a few were super fancy. A few were mom and pop hole in the walls with a hand written menu. All of them were delicious meals but I must say the mom and pop places had meals that brought me to tears from triggering by gone memories.

[CompletelyLawless]

I think one of the most interesting facts about the Michelin stars are what they meant back then. One star was for a restaurant you should stop for if you pass it, two for restaurants that were a detour on your trip and three stars meant the restaurant was worthy of a trip all its own.

[quentinpuyjalinet]

French here. There happens to be a misinterpretation at 7:48.
You point at the last phrase of the paragraph saying that restaurants are judged by "European standards" (probably because you translated "European level" from the last sentence).

However in the context, the word "niveau", or "level", isn't a reference of quality, but rather a reference of the frame of the discussion.

So an accurate way to translate it, in context, would be:
"(...) awards are granted at the end of a debate held by an assembly of European experts"

Again, the phrase doesn't actually say that, but this translation is much more accurate to the context

[sammy]

goodness how I love these history/journalistic type videos! Always so interesting and varied. I’m glad you make them Adam :)

[flybeare]

I'm in my second semester of culinary school and I still can't believe that the biggest prestige I can aspire to achiebe is getting acknowledged by a tire company
Edit: I'm leaving the spelling and grammar mistakes in idk

[andrewlipnick]

1:25 as someone who grew up and lives in the NYC metropolitan area, your description of who uses cars and who uses public transport is really incorrect. Sure, plenty of wealthy people live downtown and take public transit, but many also have a car to drive to their weekend house upstate. Furthermore, there are wealthy people that live in the suburbs, drive their cars to the train to commute in as well as drive their car on the weekends. The less well off in the city don't have cars, they live in the more remote areas of the city, the outskirts of the subway or bus lines, and commute via public transportation. The people in the NYC area that commute by car are the wealthy and the "normals" use public transportation, the exact opposite of what you describe.

[alexanderlehane]

Hey Adam, maybe we could see a video on how the same people who make Guinness beer are also connected to the Guinness World Records?

[Christian.h.]

Michelin stars may be awarded to the restaurant, but lets be honest. In reality they get awarded to the head chefs of those restaurants. Restaurants lose stars all the time when there is a change of head chefs.

[Superbassi]

1:06 It never ceases to amaze me how separate the European and American car industries are. Like, in what world is a Peugeot considered a high-class car? America, apparently.

[skittlezfdm]

The man providing answers to the questions we’ve always had

[hippob]

Hey Adam! When you translated the preface from the Michelin guide, you made an unfortunate translation error.
"débat au niveau européen" -> "european level debate". That doesn't mean that the "European level" is the standard the restaurants are judged on. It means that the decision-making process is decentralized throughout Europe. This little paragraph means to say, "our decision-making process tries to avoid one inspector from one culture deciding what is good and bad."

[MetalheadAndNerd]

My personal theory is that one day a disappointed guest at a restaurant told the cook that he has seen less chewy products leaving the Michelin factory than his kitchen. The cook then went to Michelin for expert advice on his steaks.

[andyn]

As someone who works in the automotive industry, I can assure you Michelin tires are far from lower grade lol. There’s very few companies who make a tire that’s anywhere near their league. When Bugatti was looking for a tire that could safety go 250+mph it was Michelin they gave the job to, they’re an equally upscale “snobby” company in the car world too. I find it interesting when companies have huge stakes in two completely different industries, Yamaha is another good example

[Nossimid]

You compared the number of 3 Michelin star restaurants in France (30ish), US (13), and China (3) when stating the the food is measured on a European scale. But Japan has 29 three star Michelin restaurants, which rivals France. Not saying the scale isn't Euro-centric, but that could've been interesting to explored

[graendread]

There's also the point that in early auto times, many rich frenchmen were just unsure WHERE to drive. So the more they drove, the more tires Michelin could sell.

[ricardocorreia]

My man really described Peugout as a fancy car

[aerob]

Small nitpick, Adam: The whole "cars are for the working class" thing is only really true in the US and Canada. And even then, the poorest can't afford 'em and have to spend 2 hours riding the bus because of our messed-up priorities around here. In most of the world, access to walkability and public transportation is much more egalitarian. /end nitpick. Great explainer!

[erikharrison]

Come to DC sometime, Adam. While I still think that the rarefied air of 3 star restaurants is mostly about status symbols, there is some remarkable food in the 1 star category, and a lot of it is very accessible here. If you want a "high end" experience that is genuinely tasty and doesn't make you feel like an asshole, they exist