(Image: Alex Castellá)
While the bible of high-end dining has yet to make its way to this country, that doesn’t stop us by being fascinated with the whole Michelin star process. As this recent Financial Times piece reports, Michelin is losing $24 million a year on its guides, and while that number is expected to reach $30 million by 2015, Michelin-starred restaurants are doing just fine—business spikes upwards of 25 per cent upon receiving the ultimate culinary honour. Still, the “nuclear option” of shutting the whole money-losing enterprise down is apparently off the table “because of the political impossibility in France of such drastic action.” Check out the whole story.
• Star-crossed [Financial Times] (via Eater)
and where are the michelin stars in Toronto??? …and why are you running this story
July 19, 2011 at 8:07 pm | by nicInteresting information to know?
July 20, 2011 at 8:52 am | by CulinerdI am sure you read articles, Blogs, Info-graphs not relevant to most things that deal in your daily life.
1) As a rule, the idea that restaurants with michelin stars make money is ridiculous. There is no money in fine dining, why do you think we can’t support any real fine dining restaurants in Toronto? The overhead and staff and food costs are too high to generate a real profit. Even places like Noma and El Bulli work at a loss. They count on rich investors and seminars and books sales by their chef’s to fund their day to day endeavours.
2) The guide itself is quite silly. There is no consistency in the quality of restaurants. You go to England and there are pubs getting michelin stars while if you go to Denmark, restaurants of the highest technical level don’t get stars or are limited to less stars then they should. I say ditch the book, let the people decide for themselves.
July 21, 2011 at 1:28 pm | by HPC