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The Michelin Guide is to continue to rate restaurants even as many of them struggle for their very existence.
Michelin Guide’s director Gwendal Poullennec told AFP that great chefs "have not lost their talent during the lockdowns. They have been innovating and creating new recipes". Adding that his inspectors are chomping at the bit "with impatience and an appetite to try them out when restaurants reopen."
The Michelin Guide, will announce 2021 stars through digital media with a “Digital First ” plan while announcing also that the printed guide for 2021 will be delayed.
Michelin stars may be the furthest thing from most chefs’ minds at the moment however as even the leading lights of the gastronomic world are feeling the adverse effects of the Coronavirus lockdown across the world. Only 13% of Michelin starred restaurants are currently open across 32 countries.
Restaurants in great danger
Rivals to the famed red book Gault & Millau, have taken a different approach saying it was time to stand by and support restaurants who are "in great danger". With their director Jacques Bally noting that they have cancelled their chef, pastry chef and sommelier wine waiter of the year awards. The 2021 guide will be published as normal in October.
Bally took the opportunity to turn the heat up on the famed red book saying, "our responsibility as a guide is to highlight what is being done and what possibly can be done.”
"The next 18 months are going to be extremely difficult and dangerous for restaurants," he added.
Meanwhile, the World’s 50 Best has also cancelled their list of restaurants for this year.
We decided to not announce a list this year even though the vote had taken place," director Helene Pietrini told AFP.
"It would have been inappropriate. There are moments to celebrate the best restaurants and others when we have to pull up our sleeves to make sure that all these restaurants survive."
Pietrini said some chefs were disappointed that the influential ranking had called a pause, but "a very large majority welcomed it. This crisis has called our values into question," she added.
La Liste, which publishes the annual 1000 best restaurant listing is looking to future with co-founder Jorg Zipprick saying that how chefs deal with change will inform their assessments.
“Those who accept to rethink their formula might find themselves among the winners," he said.
