With restaurants in crisis, what now for the guides that promote them?
The impact of coronavirus has left the likes of Michelin and the AA with little to write home about, says
Usually, autumn is an exciting time for the UK restaurant industry. It’s awards season: September sees the publication of the annual Good Food Guide and The AA Restaurant Guide, followed by the Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland in October, with Harden’s
London Restaurants and
Best UK Restaurants guides appearing in November. But there is nothing usual about
2020 and this year it seems likely that the impact of Covid-19 will mean there are no printed guides at all.
How can you compile an account of the country’s finest places to eat when restaurants have been closed for at least three months and unavailable for inspection? How can a book be valid for its year lifespan when no one knows how many places will ride out the adverse trading conditions that have already seen the closure of Michelin-starred venues such as The Ledbury in London, Wilks in Bristol and Restaurant James Sommerin in Wales, among others?
The Good Food Guide and the AA (both of which count former restaurateurs and chefs among their inspectors) have already confirmed they will not go to print this year. Harden’s, while it won’t survey its 40,000-strong, nationwide list of voluntary reporters this year, may produce a factual update of its London guide that will take account of closures and changes but use existing ratings. And Michelin announced this week that it would wait until January to unveil its 2021 guide (compiled by a team of inspectors made up of former hospitality professionals) – a digital-only version for the very first time.
You may be thinking, “Who cares about guides? Shouldn’t we be more worried about the restaurants themselves?” In fact, restaurants have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with guidebooks for decades. The Good Food Guide will celebrate its 70th birthday next year, the AA published its first edition in 1967, Michelin launched in the UK in 1974, and Harden’s has clocked up more than 25 years.
Even if you’ve never bought a restaurant guidebook in your life, you will almost certainly have read headlines of newly awarded Michelin stars and maybe even booked a meal as a result. In nearly two decades of interviewing chefs, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told how winning a star has transformed their businesses. Being highly rated by one of Michelin’s competitors can have a similar effect.
Although news of restaurants being demoted or dropped by guides can have a negative impact, these resources are first and foremost about highlighting excellence. Unlike newspaper review columns that exist primarily to entertain readers, and where an
It looks likely that there will be no printed guides at all this year
eloquent and amusing drubbing of a badly run restaurant is as likely to appear as a heartfelt, enthusiastic thumbs-up, a guide’s purpose is to point readers towards places where they are likely to have a great meal. Their non-appearance also means no promotional bump for restaurants from the hoopla surrounding awards season announcements.
However, the guides are not disappearing – instead they say they are concentrating their efforts online (although a random online check of those mentioned here reveals out-ofdate information, including listing now-closed restaurants). The AA has recently launched a new website, ratedtrips.com, which also includes details of the 2,500 restaurants that have been accredited to its Covid Confident assessment scheme, and there are plans to make access to thegoodfoodguide.co.uk free to all (the full site is currently only available to subscribers or MyWaitrose members).
In a video posted on YouTube in April, Gwendal Poullennec, director of Michelin Guides International, said that “an unprecedented commitment by our inspectors” would mean that “a Michelin star and all our award distinctions will mean the same in 2021 as they always have”.
Exactly how Michelin will ensure that, given the changes that restaurateurs have made due to Covid disruption, including only serving outside tables and offering a reduced menu, isn’t clear. Similarly, the AA plans to announce new rosette awards in September and January as usual, despite last month confirming that it had been forced to make redundancies due to the impact of Covid and that its inspection team would now be made up of a mix of full-time and freelance inspectors.
When I spoke to the guide editors earlier this summer, all were bullish about printing next year, not least because many feel that guides in print are more authoritative than onlineonly lists, but also because there is simply still a market for the books. Let’s hope that by this time next year there is still enough of a UK restaurant industry to fill their pages.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been told how winning a star has transformed a business