this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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The whole thing is dumb. It's a tire company. But not just that, it's a French tire company. Name your top 3 favorite French dishes. Now name your top three favorite French restaurant. If you're like me, you can't even name one of either and after thinking about it, I can't even remember even seeing a single french restaurant in my life outside of like a wine place or French bakery or something. Despite having possibly one of the least popular cuisines in all of the earth they are the ones choosing where we should all eat.
On top of that the system is super dumb. You can only have a Michelin star if your restaurant is in a place that allows them. Most states in the US are not allowed to have a Michelin star. You could be the best restaurant in all of the world but if your not in Chicago, New York City, LA, Vegas, or San Francisco too bad (and I think Miami now? Texas is about to get some too but only in Houston, Dallas and Austin cause... reasons).
In addition, they only allow a certain number of Michelin stars per location. So if you start an absolute kickass restaurant in a place that happens to allow Michelin stars but already has a few restaurants that have stars, well too bad, there aren't any stars left. Tough shit.
But as dumb as it is... God damn is it phenomenal marketing so I guess... Good job?
When I was traveling internationally there was a few countries where packing snacks was required. This was especially true if you were stuck in conventions or meetings for the week.
France was the consistently the absolute worst country for food. Everybody pretends to know what they are doing making complex dishes. Here's a hint, they don't. I had more inedible food served to me in France than any other country I traveled too.
So why the Michelin star system started in France makes perfect sense to me. In a nation of shitty food, these are passibly edible.
As for the marketing side of it: artificially creating a impression of superiority and exclusivity is a core technique to sell luxury items. It's been around for as long as some people have believed they were superior to others. Yes it is dumb, but it works.
Next time avoid tourist traps and go to places listed on le fooding or, well, the Michelin guide :)
I have to side with @The_v@lemmy.world here.
I live in Belgium and I've been to France many times, for both work and leisure. I've eaten very well in France on occasion, but generally speaking it is indeed harder to find good places to eat, and reviews and even recommendations by local coworkers often haven't been in line with my own experience. The amount of overpriced leather shoe sole steaks that I've had to endure... Paris is obviously the worst, because of the many tourist traps and it being an unfriendly city in general, but even in the Provence and in smaller towns, we had to be more mindful of which place to pick.
Especially finding good "simple" food in a casual setting can be a challenge, I mean, nobody wants to do the full white tablecloth 4-course fine dining thing every night. Here in Belgium, even in touristy places, you can always find a decent brasserie or casual restaurant where they serve the simple classics well, things like moules frites, a decent entrecôte, flemish stew, or even a simple pasta or burger.
There are bistros like that everywhere in France (minus the moules frites I guess :), maybe I'm used to spotting the nice ones but I've almost never had a bad experience with them.
Next time you should check on le fooding like I said above, that's what I use when I'm in a new place and so far I've never been disappointed.
I know, it's just that I have had more mediocre experiences with them, to say it kindly.
Didn't know about le fooding, will try to keep it in mind next time.
This actually reminds me that I had one of the worst steaks in my life in Paris; I asked for medium but it was fully cooked, overcooked actually, yet cold. My onion soup was also cold. The only silver lining was we got a more expensive bottle of wine and only later back at our room noticed on the receipt they didn’t charge us for it. That was our second bad result after looking at “highly rated” nearby listings on Google Maps in Paris so we stopped using Google Maps. Fortunately my wife’s aunt had given her a Michelin “Routiers” book, which I think was less fancy than the standard Michelin guide, and we ate at an excellent restaurant the next night, just not as close to our rental.
It was such a a stark contrast when I would hit 3 to 5 countries in 2 weeks. The only places close to as bad as France was Chile and Tunisia. And honestly it wasn't inedible in either of those countries just very bland and boring.
It seriously was a shock the fist time I went and put it down to bad luck. Then every return trip was exactly the same.