Fine Dining and Tough Tires|顶级的感官飨宴

Fine Dining and Tough Tires

by Brian Foden

The prestigious Michelin Guide to fine dining started as a way to get people in their cars so they would eventually buy more tires.

　　The Michelin Guide is synonymous with fine dining, exquisite cuisine, expensive wine, luscious desserts, and impeccable service. In another context, the name Michelin also conjures up a nearly polar opposite image ―― durable car tires. Actually, the connection is not as odd as it may seem, especially considering the history behind the Michelin brand.

　　When Frenchmen Andre Michelin and his brother, Edouard, developed a new design for automobile tires filled with air in 1895, it was still rare to see motor vehicles on the roads. To encourage travel by car, and thus increase usage of Michelin tires, the brothers decided to publish a guide that provided French motorists with hotel recommendations and other useful information such as where to get gas, find a mechanic, and how to fix a flat tire. First published at the turn of the 20th century, the Michelin Guide was originally nearly 600 pages long, and the 35,000 printed copies were given out for free. About two and a half decades later in 1926, the Michelin Guide began using a single star to highlight outstanding restaurants, and in the early 1930s, two more stars were added to the rating system. According to the Michelin Guide, one star means that the establishment is a very good restaurant in its class, two stars signal that it has excellent dishes, and three stars symbolize that the restaurants offer exceptional cuisine. Over the years, the guide has expanded to include more cities in roughly two dozen countries. Since it was first produced more than a century ago, the Michelin Guide has sold tens of millions of copies.

 

顶级的感官飨宴

这本介绍顶级美食的《米其林指南》颇负盛名，起初是要让大众多开车，好让他们最终能购买更多的轮胎。

 

　　《米其林指南》可以说是顶级美食、精湛厨艺、昂贵美酒、赏心悦目的甜点和无可挑剔的服务的代名词。另一方面，『米其林』这个名称也会让人联想到一个几乎八竿子打不着的形象，那就是耐用的汽车轮胎。事实上，这种关联似乎没有表面上那么奇怪，尤其当你仔细端详过米其林品牌背后的历史。

　　法国人安德烈‧米其林和他的弟弟爱德华在 1895 年开发出一种崭新设计的充气轮胎，当时要看到汽车在道路上行驶仍然是很稀有的事情。为了鼓励人们驾车出游，进而提高米其林轮胎的使用量，兄弟俩决定发行一本指南，提供法国的驾驶人有关饭店推荐和其他有用的信息，象是到哪里可以加油、哪里可以找到修车师傅，还有如何修理爆胎等。《米其林指南》在十九世纪和二十世纪之交首次出版，起初有将近六百页篇幅，而这三万五千本指南都是免费发送的。大约在二十五年后的 1926 年，《米其林指南》便开始使用单一颗星来突显杰出的餐厅，并在 1930 年代初期将两颗星和三颗星加入评比系统。根据《米其林指南》的评比方式，一颗星代表该企业在同级餐厅当中是相当优质的餐厅，两颗星表示该餐厅具有一流的菜色，而三颗星则象征该餐厅提供登峰造极的厨艺。这本指南多年来已扩大其版图，将更多的城市列入，遍及大约二十几个国家。《米其林指南》从一世纪多前首次出版至今销售量已达数千万本。