Culinary marketing: Gault&Millau as that other ‘star’

French chef Paul Bocuse once said: “Michelin is the only guide that counts.” But that was probably before there were other guides, or because he was – and is – seen as an untouchable saint by that guide. There are other, more real marketing standards in culinary marketing. For example, Gault&Millau.

Gault&Millau (G&M) is a French company that publishes gastronomy guides in various countries. French journalists Henri Gault and Christian Millau publish a magazine with reviews of restaurants in their country in 1969. A few years later they convert the magazine into an annual guide. From 2004 to 2007 a combin guide with reviews for the Benelux was publish. Since 2008 the Dutch guide has been publish independently.

There has been debate about which guide is more important

Michelin or Gault&Millau. In the 1970s, Michelin’s continu conservative support for traditional haute cuisine was challeng by G&M’s support for Nouvelle cuisine . Michelin is more popular and therefore more influential. Whereas G&M is more focus on food, as its main system is bas purely on the quality of food. (I have written about the power, politics, money and controversies surrounding Michelin in The Power of the Star. )

The guides agree on one thing: on the 20th anniversary of the G&M guide in 1990, Paul Bocuse (along with two others) was crown “Chef of the Century” by G&M. It is not known whether Bocuse, also known as the pope of gastronomy and Monsieur Paul , chang his opinion about “the only guide”.

Reviews and awards
The guide also – somewhat confusingly? – includes ratings of restaurants using ‘toques’ (not those sports protective things, but chef’s hats) and assigns a point rating on an unusual scale of 20. The toques, incidentally, run somewhat parallel to the points: one hat for 13-13.5 points, two for 14-14.5, three for 15-16.5, four for 17-18.5 and five toques for 19-20 points.

The 20-point scale is not a doubling of the 10-point scale, because a score of 14 is already quite high, better than the ‘more than sufficient’ that a 7 represents. Scores below 10 are rarely publish. Top restaurants such as Heeren van Harinxma, phone number library Graphite and Mos have ‘only’ 16 points, and thus do not even make it into the print guide, which only lists restaurants with more than 16 points.

Under the original authors and for many years after

they both left, G&M never award a score Входяща маркетингова стратегия of 20 points, arguing that perfection is beyond the limitations of a normal human. In 2004, 37 years after the system was creat, two restaurants, both run by chef Marc Veyrat, were award the score for the first time.

Some 850 restaurants in the bw lists Netherlands are assess by 30 inspectors who are authoris by G&M, but not affiliat with the guide. They must make at least 20 visits per year, against reimbursement of costs. A G&M chief inspector coordinates these activities. The results are discuss every quarter.