The four leading guides edited by Derek Bulmer (2009)
The 2009 Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland Guide contents was expected to be released to the press at 0800 on Wednesday 21st January 2009. Thanks to a leak, this was brought forward to Saturday 17th January 2009. Having completedan exhaustive round of press interviews, Derek Bulmer was preparing, in his hotel suite, for twenty plus local radio interviews.
Mr Bulmer found time to record a 13 minute iTunes podcast (first for Michelin) interview with Simon Carter, the editor of www.fine-dining-guide.com. The original podcast can be listened to by typing “fine dining uk” into the main iTunes Store search box. It’s free to access.
This interview is best read in conjunction with the internet first interview with Derek Bulmer that took place in 2005 – many elements (many questions and answers) are timeless.
Tell us a bit about your professional background?
Like any of the inspectors that work for Michelin I was recruited directly from the Hotel and Restaurant industry some thirty years ago. For the last ten years I’ve been editor of the Great Britain and Ireland Michelin Guide. I also have responsibility for three other books – the London Guide, the Main Cities of Europe Guide and the Michelin Eating out in Pubs Guide.
What are the guiding principles in awarding accolades in the Michelin GB&I Guide 2009?
I presume by accolades you are asking about the stars…the stars are awarded for cuisine of any style of the very highest quality. The things that we look for when we award a star are firstly the quality of ingredients that are used – they must be of the very highest quality in order to get a star. We then look at the skill and flair in the preparation of those ingredients – that is if you like the talent of the chef. We look at the combination of the flavours, do they go well together, do they enhance the dish. We also look at the levels of creativity on the menu – does it suggest that the chef is striving to do something original?
We look for consistency and that’s in two parts – first right across the menu to make sure that the chef is not just a great meat cook but can cook fish just as well and also that the desserts are up to the same standard – Second is consistency over a period of time: stars are not awarded very quickly, over just one or two meals, we will look at an address over a year to eighteen months before we consider awarding a star.
Finally, something that we must not forget, we look at the value for money the meal offers. Of course for Bib Gourmand we’re looking for something slightly different and that is quality at a price. Now these are places that use perhaps simpler ingredients but they nevertheless prepare their food with the same degree of skill and care at a good price.
What would be your overview of current trends in the 2009 GB & I Michelin Guide?
First of all I think it’s important to say it’s been a great year – we’ve awarded more stars and Bib Gourmands than ever before (since 1974 when the Michelin Guide GB&I started). In terms of the trends we’ve seen; we’ve certainly witnessed a continuation in the rise of the Bib Gourmand as a style of eating out in it’s own right. We are a nation that is eating out more often and people are looking for value for money places of the right quality. Many people just buy our guide for that award, we know because they’ve written and told us.
We’ve seen 21 new Bib Gourmand restaurants open this year and that’s very good news.
Another mini trend has been the influx of multi-starred foreign chefs coming to London such as Helene Darroze, Alain Ducasse and Jean Christophe Ansanay-Alex. These are seriously high profile chefs and the fact they want to open up in London raises the profile of the city: London is seen as one of the gastronomic capitals of the world now
Are there any other examples of themes or trends in the Guide?
Yes, it’s very positive to see more woman chefs getting to the top of their profession: The fact that Rachel Humphrey was appointed Head Chef at Le Gavroche last year, Claire Smyth at Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road and then we had the openings of Helene Darroze at the Connaught and Angela Hartnett at Murano – these are high profile woman chefs running some of the best kitchens in the country.
Going back to Bib Gourmand – that has been a big success! Yes, for many years all the media have wanted to talk about are star restaurants – which only represent about 5% of the total Guide. The Bib Gourmand has been increasingly important to the reader over the last ten years. We’ve seen some examples open in London in the last year such as The Market, The Modern Pantry, The Giaconda Dining Room. It’s almost as if these people had a crystal ball and foresaw the recession we were going into and set up perfectly to withstand the difficult times.
The Guide is about more than just restaurants!
Yes, The GB&I Guide has about two thirds hotels and one third restaurants but it is usually the restaurants that people want to talk about and the area that the Michelin name is most closely associated with…
What does the Michelin London Guide offer to supplement the GB&I Guide?
The London Guide is aimed at a slightly different market, many tourists who visit come specifically to London and require a dedicated Guide. So we provide the same selection but give much more information – a longer descriptive text, photographs and specialities of the restaurant. It is of course part of our ever expanding city Guides that are opening up all over the world at the moment.
What do you think of the rise of the internet and the amateur food critic?
Well I think it’s great – anything that encourages discussion about food and raises it’s profile is good for the industry. We all have different opinions about restaurants because it’s quite an emotive and in some ways subjective subject. So people will have lots of different opinions but the fact that they’re talking about them in the first place is what’s important, so I think that all of these internet sites are great news.
There are many different nationalities in the GB&I Guide 2009. Do you have a view on that?
Yes absolutely, you’ve actually hit on one of the strengths of the Guide. The fact that we have such diversity of choice in cooking puts London right up there with New York. I can’t think of anywhere else where you can eat, at star level, in British, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Indian or Thai restaurants.
What triggers an inspection from Michelin?
Essentially our knowledge that the place exists and anything goes in that regard, we don’t mind how we find out about a good restaurant or hotel so long as we find it: Many places contact us directly and ask for an inspection, hopefully within a year of receiving a request we will have been to see the establishment. We also get thousands of questionnaires from our readers each year – we encourage this by putting one in the guide we sell. The inspectors themselves spend three weeks out of every four in the field and if you ask the same questions often enough you eventually get the right answers.
Tell us about the Green Bib Stamp in the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs Guide?
This has been received very well; we made the conscious decision several years ago (when the guide was launched) not to include the Star and Bib Gourmand, we thought it might confuse the reader. So what we did was to select all the best pubs – whether it was for the quality of the food, the warmth of the welcome, the character and charm of the pub – for these variety of reasons we awarded the Green Bib Stamp and I know that people use that in the same way they use, for example, the Bib Gourmand in the GB&I Guide – they’re the best pubs basically. The four industry leading Guides edited by Derek Bulmer: The Michelin Great Britain & Ireland 2009 Guide, Michelin Eating out in Pubs Guide 2009, The Michelin Main Cities of Europe Guide and the Michelin London Guide 2009. The 2009 Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland Guide contents was expected to be released to the press at 0800 on Wednesday 21st January 2009. Thanks to a leak, this was brought forward to Saturday 17th January 2009. Having completed an exhaustive round of press interviews, Derek Bulmer was preparing, in his hotel suite, for twenty plus local radio interviews.
Mr Bulmer found time to record a 13 minute iTunes podcast (first for Michelin) interview with Simon Carter, the editor of www.fine-dining-guide.com. The original podcast can be listened to by typing “fine dining uk” into the main iTunes Store search box. It’s free to access.
This interview is best read in conjunction with the internet first interview with Derek Bulmer that took place in 2005 – many elements (many questions and answers) are timeless.
Interview with Derek Bulmer took place Wednesday 21st January at the Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes Hotel, London
