From tires to stars: A brief Michelin Guide history

“What gives a tire company the right to rate restaurants?”

Such a question has been looming in people’s heads ever since Michelin Guide started 125 years ago.

In 1889, in the small French town of Clermont-Ferrand, when brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin founded their namesake tire company, there were fewer than 3,000 cars in the land. 

Since automobiles were in early development stages, there were many car crashes. Many roads then were also not yet well-paved. Scared to ride cars, many people still relied on horse carriages.

To help boost car sales and in effect, tire sales, the Michelin brothers produced a small red guide book — the Michelin Guide — initially as a marketing tool to encourage more people to use cars by encouraging them to drive to the hotels, shops and restaurants suggested in the guide. The book also included maps and information on changing tires, fueling up and other details aimed at helping those on a road trip.

For two decades, the book was given away for free. But when Andre arrived in one of their tire shops to see the guides being used as a workbench padding, the brothers decided to launch a new guide now priced at seven francs, based on the principle that “man only truly respects what he pays for.” But advertisements were taken out of the book.

In the 1920s, the guide included a list of Paris hotels and restaurants according to categories.

In 1926, the guide began to bestow stars to fine dining establishments. At first, they were marked with just one star. Five years later, a ranking of zero, one, two and three stars was launched and in 1936, the criteria for the rankings were published.

Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guide, explained at the recent inaugural Michelin Guide: Manila and Environs and Cebu 2026 in Pasay City that since the guide was started 125 years ago, the same criteria and selection process by “inspectors” (also referred to as “mystery diners” by some) are used today to determine the stars.

At first, chefs in France reportedly laughed and discredited Michelin, a tire company, for giving stars to restaurants — until they saw its impact: people started to line up at restaurants included in the guide. Some restaurants reportedly went bankrupt when not mentioned in the book. Some chefs even reportedly took their own lives after desperately waiting for a Michelin star for years.

Indeed, the Michelin Guide has built a serious reputation in the past 125 years, making it a globally-recognized authority that has rated more than 40,000 establishments in over 24 countries in three continents, with over 30 million guides sold worldwide.