The restaurant star system is in crisis. Chefs discuss the relevance of awards and recognitions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The most coveted award globally in the restaurant world are Michelin stars. A symbol of status. A medal that qualifies a restaurant as one of the best restaurants in the world. Strong business at scores of starred restaurants seems to suggest customers trust the system, even as critics have highlighted the rating system’s bias and the economic strain restaurants have to face to retain the achieved rating.
What happens in a world battered by the COVID-19 virus, do they preserve their significant role? As the global pandemic persists in crushing the already catastrophically hit restaurant-industry can a star offer protection? Some prominent chefs believe there’s still use for the starred system, a way to provide guidance and assurance on the investment customers make on the experience.
Guides and ratings like the French Michelin stars, the American-based Zagat ratings, or the even more exclusive World’s 50 Best, have traditionally aimed at providing direction and advice to customers looking to dine out or for patrons in search of an extraordinary culinary experience. The Michelin guide itself was developed to recommend new reasons to travel: a three-starred restaurant is considered a place “worth a special journey”, two stars is “worth a detour”, while a one-star is at least “worth a stop”. In 2020 traveling has either been not allowed or strongly discouraged, does this make the awards and recognition irrelevant?
Many this year have decided to suspend the guides and rating activity, while Michelin has decided not to – a decision supported by many restaurateurs - with the exception of some US states like New York City. While presentations were delayed, they decided to continue with the publication of the 2021 edition. In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera Gwendal Poullennec, the Michelin guide’s international director, stated that they tried to maintain some sort of normalcy following chefs’ requests that they continue working as they’ve always done.
According to CNN, in their interview with Poullennec he said that the guide was also keeping track internationally of the status of Michelin-starred restaurants, a “barometer” on their ecosystem of restaurants. While in April only about 13% were open, in mid-October about 85% were operating – statements that came before the second wave of virus cases in Europe and lockdowns across France, Spain, and Italy.
In this moment of deep crisis for the industry, the role awards, ratings, and recognitions while relevant becomes a secondary thought for many, who are more worried about ensuring their businesses and the industry keep working.
Heinz Beck, chef at the three-Michelin starred restaurant La Pergola in Roma, Italy, and many others said that he also believes they’ve acquired an increasingly important role. He believes that when traveling and moving around is limited, and in a situation that puts you at risk every time you leave your house, you are usually drawn to places you know that are close to you and that you trust. “It becomes even more crucial to have guides that lead people to places that are the most aligned with what they are looking for,” said Beck.
Some believe that guides and ratings this year also provide patrons a warranty on how safe it is to go there. Beck for example said “Patron feels serener when he can eat in a restaurant that has a track record of working in a trustworthy way. If they’ve been working for years in a quality way, and are considered good at what they do, in a situation like the one we’re living they will probably be great at respecting all the safety regulations instituted by authorities.”
Mauro Colagreco is the chef at Le Mirazur restaurant in Menton, France. He is currently n°1 on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, has been awarded three Michelin stars, and the new sustainability star. According to Colagreco, during this pandemic guides and ratings are more important than ever. “Today, when people go out they really select the place they’re going to,” he said “Before some people would go out five or six times a week, they’d eat in many different places. Today one goes out only once a week, or less. So, you’re really making a careful selection and guides further help in assisting this choice.”
Also, Claudio Vicina, chef at the Casa Vicina the Michelin starred, family-owned restaurant, in Torino, Italy, said “It might be that certain restaurants offer an extra guarantee if one wants to live an experience.” “I don’t know if it’s about the economic aspect or a safety one, but these starred restaurants already have demonstrated they can ensure reliability in terms of hygiene and in the kitchen, also they are never crowded,” he continued, highlighting the advantage that many of these restaurants hold by having space to place tables already at a safe distance, as they already did before COVID-19 regulations came in.
Michelin director Poullennec also stated in interviews that the guide would be more flexible and would be evaluating restaurants’ food in whatever form it was presented – certain that chefs would never compromise on the quality of their work.
While chefs have shown they agree with a need for Michelin to continue its work with the same authority they also believe that restaurant assessments will be more lenient. “I think that the approach of guides like Michelin, that has always been quite severe, today will be less demanding,” said Mauro Colagreco.
Matteo Baronetto, chef of Michelin-starred historic restaurant Del Cambio in Torino, Italy, also agrees. “It will be very hard for restaurants to maintain certain standards, so I don’t know how they might help because it would mean being more indulgent,” he said. “Certainly they [Michelin] are very conservative, so they’ll maintain their perseverance and authority as always. But I also think they’ll be a valid support to the restaurant industry in a moment of crisis like this. Which doesn’t mean they’ll be giving away awards, they’d never do that. But a circuit must be created or recreated.”
Nonetheless, as for every individual and business owner, this crippling time calls for some introspection. As chef Claudio Vicina from Casa Vicina restaurant said “It’s a crucially important moment for us to reflect, a moment for us to do some soul-searching and to understand what is important and what is not. We must take advantage of this horrible moment to restart.”
With the fact that restaurants in Italy and other countries have been closed for half of 2020, chef Baronetto believes it will be a very complicated year to look back to. He said, “We’ll really need to take our time to restudy a new business model. Today a problem for many young people who are starting out is finding how to pay employees at the end of the month. In this dramatic situation, you must be a realist and pragmatic. After this, I believe the future will be rich with innovation, excitement, but the rules of the game will definitely have changed.”
*interviews with all the chefs were conducted in Italian and translated by the reporter
