2024-03-17 15:34:05
On March 6, 2023, a few minutes after 10 a.m., the lights at the Palais de la Musique et des Congrès in Strasbourg went out. A countdown, with a very martial air, announces the official opening of the star ceremony. More than 600 chefs, dressed in their immaculate uniforms, fill the amphitheater, impatiently awaiting the announcement of the new Michelin stars.
After a brief speech by the president of the General Council of Alsace, Gwendal Poullenec, international director of the Michelin Guide, takes the stage. He announces that a very special message is going to be broadcast. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron appears on a giant screen. He does thepraise from the Michelin Guide“bible of our gastronomy”, and congratulates chefs for their contribution to the culinary world and to society as a whole:
“Restaurants, whether large or small, create life. »
Despite the length of the speech and the growing impatience of the audience, the excitement is palpable, as these professionals await the unveiling of the prestigious awards.
This strong moment is replayed this Monday March 18 in Tours, a date on which the destiny of a few establishments may radically change, catapulting them to new heights of prestige and success. However, such success can also come with immense pressure and insecurity, as the story of Marco Pierre White who, in 1999, returned his three stars, followed by other chefs, citing the unbearable pressure suffered to maintain the elite status that so many strive to obtain.
Menus that transform
Status is a powerful force in the business world, promising increased visibility, easier access to resources, and performance advantages. The unstable and highly visible nature of status hierarchies, however, can also be a source of insecurity for those at the top. It can lead to compensatory actions and attempts to conform to the expectations associated with a high position. In recent study, we examined how organizations that experience a positive status shock respond to their new position. We particularly focused on the release of the first edition of the Michelin Guide for the city of Washington, in the fall of 2016.
The new guide aimed to position the American capital as a leading gastronomic destination. Before its publication, the city suffered from the reputation of being above all the temple of steakhouses old-fashioned. Thanks to the publication of the guide on October 13, 2016, Washington became at the time the fourth American city, after New York, San Francisco and Chicago, on the map of the prestigious guide, a club which has since expanded. This inclusion was accompanied by a sudden and positive increase in the status of the selected restaurants, propelling them into the industry elite on a global level.
We analyzed restaurant menus and their evolution before and after the publication of the Michelin Guide. Their maps provide rich and valuable information on how establishments are designed. They constitute the main communication tool between the professional and his customers: they present his culinary offers, his prices and his differentiating sales arguments. Menus reflect the choices made by managers and chefs, choices which may be influenced by their perception of their position in the industry.
We compared the 106 awarded restaurants in Washington by comparing their trajectories to those of two other groups: the city’s non-awarded ones who met the minimum requirements for entry into the guide (143 restaurants) and those in a comparable city (Boston). where Michelin is not present selected on the basis of cuisine type, price level and average Yelp rating (106 restaurants).
Three main changes were observed in the neo-reward menus. First, they changed the descriptive characteristics of their menus to align them with the expectations associated with high-end restaurants. The length of dish descriptions increased by 10% and half of the references to portion sizes were gone. Second, these restaurants emphasized authenticity, characteristic of elite restaurants: references to cooking techniques increased by 20% and the use of organic, locally sourced or small-scale ingredients producers was highlighted. Finally, restaurants have adapted their pricing strategy, primarily by increasing their menu prices by around 5%, reflecting an awareness of the value they are creating for their customers.
Justify your status
The tendency to make these changes, notably, was more marked in restaurants which appeared in the guide without having received any stars. As if those who weren’t at the top of the rankings felt a greater need to justify their high status. We also examined how an institution’s position (established from local reviewers’ ratings) before the status shock influenced changes in self-presentation attributes. Contrary to expectations, restaurants with high prior status, which should have been less concerned with showing their value, also emphasized attributes related to authenticity and value.
The study also suggests that the changes concerned not only self-presentation but also material modifications in activities: changes in cooking techniques or in the sourcing of ingredients, for example. However, the available data did not allow us to confirm with certainty the extent of operational changes.
We see here how complex it is to navigate high-ranking positions. In the context of the gastronomy industry, the insecurity of maintaining one’s star from year to year can lead to changes in self-presentation and, eventually, operational adjustments.
Other of our research highlights the impact of changing hierarchies and status assessments in other sectors on both organizations and individuals. All of them underline the importance of understanding, for business leaders, the implications of status shocks in order to take advantage of them to navigate a dynamic and competitive commercial landscape.
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