As I understand the story, Michelin made tires for cars… and people drive in cars. Maybe if people had a handy guide that told them all the best places to eat, they’d start driving to those places… thus the Michelin Guide was born!
this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2024
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There is also an interesting video by tasting history about this: https://youtu.be/-Y_TWPbmiRE
IIRC these even used the guide in a world war because of how good the maps in it were.
I deadass thought the tire company and the restoraunt rating system were two completely different and unrelated things. Wow
I thought so too for the longest time. My wife is a chef though, so it’s come up a couple of times since we got together…
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As do most people, but the comment you're replying to is the short and sweet of how it happened.
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Similarly, the Guinness of the beer and the Guinness of the book of records are the same Guinness. Michelin started as a tire company when there were only approximately 4000 cars in all of France, their home country, and started the restaurant guide as a way of increasing demand for travel, and therefore cars, and therefore tires for cars. Guinness the brewery started the list of records as something to keep on hand to settle arguments in pubs
Also, the t-studend distribution (way more important than the normal distribution imo) was born in a research lab for Guinness.
what‽ how is the student t distribution more important than the normal distribution?? you can't even use the t unless you've confirmed that you've got a normal! 📈📉
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the student t distribution a set of distributions that includes the normal distribution?
Because if so, it feels a little like saying "you can't even call something red unless you've confirmed that it's crimson"
The t-distribution approaches the normal distribution with increasing degrees of freedom. It is certainly more relevant in for example hypothesis testing, since t-Tests (variance is estimated from the data) is much more common than z-tests (variance is treated as fixed and coming from a normal distribution).
In all of statistics or probability theory, the normal theory is however way more influential.
Nonetheless, it's a cool bit of history where modern statistics got its roots. As a lover of both statistics and guinness, i approve!🍻
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Also, the snobbery aspect of the Michelin guide is because only rich people could afford cars at the beginning.
I used to work in a Michelin star restaurant very briefly, and it's mostly just about presentation. The food was definitely good enough high quality but you could also get good high quality food from non-michelin star restaurants, if you paid enough.
Anyway all the kitchen staff used to go to McDonald's for their lunch, which tells you everything you really need to know about Michelin restaurants. You can get sick of fancy food.
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Guinness the brewery started the list of records as something to keep on hand to settle arguments in pubs
That sounds like an awesome cultural thing that probably died with smartphones.
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My world has been turned upside down
Technically it’s the tire company telling people to drive hundreds of miles to eat at specific restaurants
The initial ranking criteria is litteraly how long of a drive is the restaurant worth.
- * High-quality cooking, worth a stop
- ** Excellent cooking, worth a detour
- *** Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey
Well it was more of a general travel guide thing but also sure why not, foodies never change lmao
Tyty I wanted to be like akshully capitalism but I'm not succinct like you.
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Guiness the beer company giving out world records.
Beer companies in general have a stadium/arena named after them, it gets confusing after Saku (town) has a beer company names saku and they have a stadium/arena in Tallinn (hosted Eurovision 2002 btw)
The world records thing started as a way to settle bets in bars, meaning they stayed in the bars longer and drank more Guinness. So that makes sense. Similarly, the Michelin guide was something to make the idea of driving more attractive by giving tourists dining information.
My favourite is the Busch Stadium.
Sportsman's Park was renamed Busch Stadium in 1953; then-team owner August Busch Jr. had planned to name it Budweiser Stadium, but at the time league rules prohibited naming a venue after an alcoholic beverage. Busch named the stadium after himself, and the Anheuser-Busch corporation later introduced "Busch Beer".
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"Hey, you what will help sell more tires? Rating restaurants!" -some marketing person at Michelin
And the weird thing is it worked.
See also the Guinness Book of World Records, which is just a beer company doing some marketing to settle bar bets.
Mmmm, tires
No shit. Learning things is a hell of a thing.
Read this with Kanye West's voice
I like some of Michelin's tires, What the Fuck does they know about food?
The award show is funny, because any chef that wins gets to shake hands with the Michelin man.
We really did let posh wankers have too much sway on food.
I want a guide that lists everything by calories per £. If I'm going out for a meal, I want value!
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Tire producers, fancy food, and cross-country bicycle races, they go together like...uh...eggs and pizza? Sure that works
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