Ridiculously Expensive Michelin Guide: Over 30,000 Euros for an Old Booklet
Why would someone pay over thirty thousand euros for an old guide when you can order the latest version from Bol for two ten-euro notes? It’s a first edition of the world-famous Guide Michelin, from 1900. Well, that is something special.
The annual presentation of the Michelin Guide is quite an event every time, especially for chefs who wait with pounding hearts to see whether they are included and whether they have gained or lost stars. The guide began in 1900 as a booklet featuring charming hotels, garages and toilets along the roads in France. There were not many cars driving around France at the time, and the tyre manufacturer wanted to promote car use. The booklet was still given away for free then. Michelin’s website states that the initiator, André, saw a whole stack of his free booklets in a garage – being used to prop up a rickety workbench. From that moment on, the company stopped giving the guide away for free and began charging for it.
Culinary compass
Gradually, the Michelin Guide developed into a culinary compass. In 1905, the first edition about the Netherlands appeared, written in French because the target audience was French motorists. The booklet included, among other things, the Amstel Hotel and Hotel Des Indes in The Hague. Michelin stars were not introduced until 1926. Michelin inspectors set out to assess restaurants. At first, they awarded a maximum of one star, but this was soon expanded to three stars—the system we still know today.
First edition
At an auction, a French chef recently bought a copy of the very first Michelin Guide from 1900. Including the buyer’s premium and auction costs, the chef paid 33,549 euros for the booklet. This edition contains no restaurant reviews yet, but it does include addresses for, for example, a farrier where you could have a broken spring repaired and drugstores where you could also refuel, because that is how things were done in those days.
