The Michelin Guide always lays down the law

In the end, the Michelin guide, for us Italians, is a bit like Juventus: many would prefer if they had never been invented while they do exist and they win too. So we cannot ignore them. This is also due to the fact that, and I’m referring to the Red Guide, it’s not the French’s fault if we have not been capable of creating a publication with equal importance and influence everywhere in the world. You can’t help it: when you need to asses a chef or a restaurant, you always end up mentioning its stars, especially with foreign ones.

We’ve just left the presentation of the edition number 60 behind us, an event that we at Identità covered with attention thanks to Gabriele Zanatta’s interview with curator Sergio Lovrinovich, whom we can only thank. As customary in the past ten years or so, even this year the number of starred establishments has grown, as summed up here, again by Zanatta.

We had reached 229, we’re now 332 even though Sara Preceruti, chef at Locanda del Notaio in Pellio Intelvi above Lake Como, at the end of the season decided to get back in the game. Three years ago something similar happened: with the Michelin already printed, the owners decided to free the chef of the time to promote Preceruti, who would later confirm the star. It is now her turn to stop. Had she made the announcement earlier, it would have been better. So all us working for guides could have avoided publications with a useless review.

Among the various things I noted down, the question made by Annalisa Cavaleri, a journalist who wondered on facebook who received less than they deserved, made me think. I answered Christian Milone, Alessandro Dal Degan, Paolo Lopriore of course, to whom I dedicated one of the 50 stories in which XXL, 50 piatti che hanno allargato la mia vita is structured. And, again, Gianluca Gorini whom perhaps the fact he worked for a long time with Paolo in Siena and now in Como didn’t help. And why not Simone Padoan and Franco Pepe? Why are pizzerias condemned to be in the B league and a fish-based restaurant has a better DNA, regardless of all the rest?

Of course then one might try to understand what can be wrong in the eyes of the team guided for almost two years by Lovrinovich and indeed one can find some reasons. Still, I really cannot understand how all of the 285 restaurants with a star can be better than the above mentioned chefs. The Michelin Guide favours consistency instead of wild genius but in the case of many, including the new entries, we’re facing constant mediocrity. Not a wrong note, but not a standing ovation either. In this sense, what Antonio Scibili, president of the Avellino FC said in the Eighties to his trainer Rino Marchesi comes to my mind: “It’s like when a doctor doesn’t let you die but doesn’t cure you either”. Stuck with an average rating, that is.

And then there’s Raffaele Foglia who interviewed Paolo Lopriore for Provincia di Como and thus had the chance to re-state what was already said in the Tuscan edition of Corriere della Sera: “Stars are an acknowledgment that make you happy, but I don’t cook for guides”, the sum of a very interesting reasoning, which is obviously more structured. However, though there are some who adapt their style to obtain a star, offering what they believe Lovrinovich and his people will like, the Michelin Guide does not go around imposing anything. They judge and decide without asking those directly involved. There are also those who are surprised to be awarded just like those who ask not to get to the second star “because it would ruin my restaurant” and still remain at two.

We will discuss about the Michelin Guide every autumn, but bless be the day be when we, Italians, will manage to create something similar, something equally powerful. In fact, I have an idea and I even confided it to Giorgia Cannarella of Fine Dining Lovers...