Thailand’s new Michelin guide: gold standard of restaurant reviews or overhyped and out-of-date?
- While some describe the French guide as the ultimate authority, bloggers claim Michelin lacks cutting-edge credibility
- Kingdom’s celebrated street-food stalls enjoy recognition alongside tried-and-tested eateries
Every day is different for Khun Gee, who works for an events company in Bangkok. Sometimes he is on the streets, sometimes he is in a mall. Today, he is in the ballroom of a five-star hotel off Ploenchit Road, his wire-thin frame costumed by the bulbous contours of a Michelin Man, aka Bibendum, aka Bib, aka Bibelobis.
The three-hour gig nets him 2,000 baht (HK$475). “At least there’s air-con in here, and I won’t get kids bumping me from behind,” he says. “Can’t say I’ve ever been to a Michelin restaurant, though.” Gee pauses, then grins. “There again, I might have eaten some of the street food they’ve awarded.”
Gee’s piece of mummery is part of the ballyhoo surrounding the launch of the second Michelin guide to Thailand: 217 eateries, 67 hotels and a minor galaxy of stars strewn over Bangkok and – new for this edition – Phuket and Phang Nga. Rather than being a ho-hum press conference, it has been dubbed “A Revelation”.
The ballroom is packed with Michelin bigwigs, tourism-board honchos, assorted friends and relatives, and the sort of folk who are not displeased to find themselves labelled glitterati. A battery of television cameras and three outsize screens capture the action, and the speeches are larded with phrases such as “seasonal local produce” and “authentic culinary journey”. There are also discreet, almost subliminal references to the awards being “a driving force for tourism” and “fuelling industry growth”. Who’d have guessed that Michelin also manufactures car tyres?
The first Michelin guide (“Offert gracieusement aux Chauffeurs”, or “offered free of charge to drivers”) was published in 1900 and was a how-to for France’s 3,000 fledgling motorists that pinpointed petrol stations, supplied tyre-changing instructions and – crucially – listed places to eat and stay overnight. At a time when no one had really got a handle on integrated marketing strategies, it was the original inspirational road map: go forth and wear out our tyres, and then buy some more.
