French Food guides to start planning your vacations in France
Current Food Guides provide us with more and more good spots and even local recipes to diversify our food experiences during our vacations. And the timing is perfect! With the arrival of Spring, LA ROUTE DES GOURMETS is eager to plan its next gourmet activities 🙂
To do so, let’s head to our library to select one of the latest gastronomic guides, such as the Guide Michelin 2017 (see our article About French Women Cheffes les femmes Cheffes ) , or the Gault & Millau, but there are many others to ensure the success of your culinary discoveries and experiences!
This prompts us to take a step back in history to understand how these first guides were written, what their origins are, and to talk about their current evolution! Indeed, the link between literature, gastronomy and tourism is rapidly leading to the emergence of numerous renowned guidebooks to French gastronomy.
Origin of the first cookbooks and food guides in France
- During Ancient times
From this period onwards, cooks began to immortalize their culinary recipes in written memoirs. - The Middle Ages (14th century)
This continues in the Middle Ages with one of the most famous gastronomic guides, the “viandier” by Guillaume Tirel, chef to kings Charles V and Charles VI. - The renaissance (16th century)
The philosophers of the Enlightenment were keen to describe what they tasted. This was the case with the talented Bartolomeo in 1550, “Du plaisir honnête et de la santé”, serving as an introduction to the profession of culinary critic. - Post revolution (18th century)
Then, after the birth of gastronomy through the creation of restaurants, literature and the culinary arts became intertwined. As a result of this union, one of the most emblematic FOod guides is Grimod de la Reynière’s “Almanach des gourmands”, first published in 1803. This was the first Food guide to list the best artisans in Paris, as well as culinary experiences in restaurants.
Later, when Ford invented the automobile in 1883, the holy alliance of “tourism and gastronomy” was created. Because the individual set off to discover the « elsewhere ». Because this discovery was made primarily through gastronomy, it quickly became associated with a people occupying a space. This is how the first gastronomic guides appeared, linking gastronomy and tourism.
Most famous french Food guides
Today, among the most renowned guides, you’ll find: at the top, the famous Michelin guide (à mettre en hypertexte) first published in 1900. Then came modern guides such as Gault et Millau (1972), Petit Futé (1976), Bottin Gourmand (1981), Champérard (1982), Pudlowski (1989). Today, they continue to be published in traditional paper format, as well as in digital and web versions to keep up with the latest trends, such as the Fooding Guide, which has become a true reference.
The inventors of Gault&Millau
CHRISTIAN MILLAU (1928-2017) Journalist and food critic He was a French writer, journalist, reporter and food critic, and a committed author. With his friend Henri Gault, he co-founded the internationally renowned Gault et Millau Food guide Gault et Millau.
HENRI GAULT (1929-2000) Journalist and food critic He was a French journalist and food critic. He was also behind one of the most influential publishing houses for gastronomic guides. With its Gault et Millau gastronomic guide, he ranks second in the hotel and restaurant guide market.
The Michelin Guide
The Michelin Guide, often nicknamed the Red Guide, is a book in the form of a directory and gastronomic, hotel and tourist guide. It was launched at the beginning of the 20th century by the Michelin tire company, which still publishes it to this day, emblazoning its cover with the famous Michelin Man.
For tourists, it often complements the Michelin Green Guide, which describes the main sights and places of interest in the region, as well as the Michelin road and orientation maps, which in recent years have been joined by GPS..
Each year, the guide selects hotels (more than 4,650 in 2010), restaurants (4,600 in 2014) and localities offering bed and board, according to its own criteria, and provides information and assessments (brief texts of no more than three lines)..
It is one of the world’s oldest and best-known gastronomic guides. According to its publisher, thirty-five million copies of the French version were sold between 1900 and 2007.
Every year, its editors award stars to the best restaurants.
The history of the Michelin Guide
The story begins in 1900.
Before becoming the international benchmark for gastronomic guides, the Guide was originally a 400-page advertising booklet.
The booklet was the idea of André and Edouard Michelin, 2 brothers who founded the MICHELIN tire factory.
The original guide was intended to “give all the information that may be useful to a driver traveling in France, to supply his automobile, to repair it, to enable him to find lodging and food, and to correspond by mail, telegraph or telephone.”
The guide was offered to drivers with the purchase of tires. The main aim of the guide was to make life easier for travelers, at a time when travel was not as “easy” as it might be today (poorly marked maps, dangerous roads, long journey times…).
It contains a lot of tourist information, practical advice, maps and city plans.
The Michelin guide became profitable in 1920 – the story goes that André Michelin, shocked to learn that a tire distributor was using the guides to wedge the feet of his workbench, decided to offer the guide at a price of 7 francs. That year, advertising disappeared from the guide, and restaurants and hotels began to appear in it, accompanied by a specific classification.
In 1926, the first “de bonne table” star was awarded, and in 1931, the 2nd and 3rd stars were added.
The job of inspector was created in 1933, and with this new profession, the Guide M began to specialize in hotel and restaurant expertise.
Inspectors, employed by the group, go in search of the best addresses all over the world, in order to propose an original and unique annual selection, organized by comfort and price categories.
The expertise of these inspectors, their independence from the addresses and their anonymity, have become key hallmarks of the Michelin guides, and a strong element of the brand, setting it apart from others.
More than a century after it was founded, the Michelin Guide remains a unique, essential and must-read for travelers, tourists and gastronomy enthusiasts around the world.
Today, the Guide covers 39 international destinations.
In a nutshell, gourmets and connoisseurs, it’s up to you to choose one of our gastronomic guides that will surprise you! It will help you prepare recipes and plan your culinary experiences..
Our agency La Route des Gourmets wishes you a wonderful season, with ever more gourmet and cultural delights.