So, for the third year in a row, the coveted, eagerly awaited, zealously guarded Michelin Guide ratings for restaurants in France leaked early last week.
This time the leak came when a bookstore in Corsica unpacked its Michelin boxes and put the books on display a week ahead of schedule and the local newspaper published a story on the three-star changes. Michelin responded by immediately authorizing the release of all the guides and by publicly announcing all changes in star status among the 9,000 restaurants and hotels covered in the guide.
Given that this was the first edition of Michelin, the bible of French gastronomy, to be published under the directorship of Jean-Luc Naret, I would have expected Naret to be angry -- or at least embarrassed -- by the premature disclosures.
No way. When we spoke by telephone last week, he was clearly far more interested in the changes he's brought to and is planning for the guide. He dismissed the leak as "something that happens, not much we can do about it."
Naret was in New York when we spoke; he'd gone there to announce that in November, for the first time, Michelin will publish a red restaurant guide in the United States. It will rate the restaurants of New York City.
Naret seemed genuinely excited by this venture, and he told me that if the guide is successful, Michelin will consider publishing guides for other U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, perhaps as soon as 2007.
The Michelin invasion of the United States -- long hoped for by gastronomes here -- was only the first of Naret's announcements last week.
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Hope for promising chefs
He also disclosed that the 2005 French guide, for the first time, has a category called "espoirs," which my French/English dictionary defines as "hopes" but which Naret told me the French (or at least those French conversant with Michelinese) colloquially translate as "rising stars."
These are the restaurants that Michelin inspectors think are the most promising and that will be watched the most closely for possible promotion in the 2006 guide.
There are 33 espoirs in all -- five of which now have two stars and are seen as likely contenders for three-star status in the near future. Ten espoirs have one star and are on the cusp of winning a second star; 18 have no stars but could gain their first star next year if they continue to improve in quality and consistency.
