From the French model of the Michelin Guide to the democratic evaluations of Falstaff up to the snails of Slow Food: how catering is judged today.
The longest day was November 12th, which we take as a pivot to think about stars, hats, forks, glasses, grinders, crowns and other symbols suitable for evaluating the seething world of catering.
It is the day when his Excellency the Red, the Michelin Guidereveals passes and fails, confirmations and news, cancellations and descents into hell. The guidance from French control, in Italy since 1956 (the first stars appeared in 1959), remains the queen: taking stars, for chefs and restaurants, is worth like the Oscar for directors and actors.
The foreign siege of the throne of the Red Army: the debut of Falstaff
He knew it well Nadia Santini of Il Pescatore, the first woman to receive three stars in Italy, who passed away on November 2nd, with the general condolences of the category. That said, Michelin’s value system can be questioned (too aligned with the French mold), and it is a common experience among gourmets to enter restaurants without awards and be surprised, while some have them and clearly don’t deserve them.
The guides are not infallible. We note, however, that they have become a crowded league. The news is called Falstaff. The name (taken from Shakespeare’s happy-go-lucky knight) has been a well-known wine, gastronomy and lifestyle brand since 1980 in Austria and German-speaking countries, but in Europe in general. Falstaff Italia was born in 2024 from the meeting between Wolfgang M. Rosam’s Viennese publishing house and Wineline, the South Tyrolean company of Othmar Kiem and Simon Staffler, who lead the Italian operation.
The first Restaurant Guide Italy 2027curated by Alessia Manoli, was presented in Milan on 28 September: 3,006 addresses including restaurants, trattorias and pizzerias, in all regions, over four hundred pages and a free app. The vote reaches one hundred, with fifty points for the cuisine, twenty for the service, twenty for the drinks and ten for the style. For pizzerias the food goes up to sixty. The formula combines the work of experts with community reports. Instead of the anonymity of Michelin-school inspectors, Falstaff boasts a recognizable community.
The democratic model and the landing of the Yellow Guide
Simon Staffler says: «It’s not just a restaurant guide: through the site and the app it brings together wine producers, hotels, bars, cafes and patisseries. Anyone who travels always has a notebook with them that can be consulted for free. For each restaurant we make the scores of the individual categories public. We also collect ratings and suggestions from our gourmet community. They are reviewed by the curator and the jury before the final judgement. It is democratic leadership.” Furthermore, on 20 October Falstaff presented the Bar Guide Italia 2027 in Venice, around a thousand digital addresses including cocktail bars, wine bars, cafés and pastry shops, and will present the hotel guide in Rona on 23 November. An Italian landing in style.
Another foreigner will arrive in January, Gault&Millauthe French Yellow Guide founded by critics Henri Gault and Christian Millau. The first edition will start from five regions of the North: Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria, Lombardy and Trentino-Alto Adige. It will take four years to cover the entire country. He promises a hundred Italian inspectors trained in an academy in Monforte d’Alba. Instead of stars it will assign from one to five toucheschef’s hats, on a scale of up to twenty points. Not just fine dining: also bistros, informal dining and the unrated Pop category. Gault&Millau’s ambition is to discover young people and new cuisines before others.
The Italian answer between Gambero Rosso, snails and crowns
The Italian guides did not stand by and watch. The Red Shrimp celebrated forty years by presenting Ristoranti d’Italia 2027 on 26 October: a total of 2,573 venues, 316 new entries and a record: 99 points for the Reale di Niko Romito. It has simplified the reviews: no longer separate ratings for cuisine, cellar and service, but an overall rating. Forks, prawns and bottles remain. It declares anonymous visits and collaborators coordinated by the editorial staff: a robust and widespread editorial machine.
Italian taverns of Slow Food plays a different game. The thirty-seventh edition brings together 1,952 venues told by over 250 collaborators. Look for local cuisine, raw materials, hospitality and reasonable prices; the highest recognition is the snail, not the luxury. It is classic in its own way Il Golosario Restaurants by Paolo Massobrio and Marco Gatti, in its eleventh edition with over four thousand venues and more than ninety collaborators. It mixes large tables, trattorias, pizzerias and provincial stops with a personal touch: crowns, radiant faces and a declared preference for places to which the authors would willingly return.
The final word always belongs to the traveler’s palate
They stay The L’Espresso Guidehistoric brand with hats and rating out of twentieths, e Gourmet Identitieswhich with its free and updated online international guide, is more an author’s story than a classification, with attention to chefs and trends: the very reason for the reality founded by Paolo Marchi. Each leader controls his own territory, as armies do in war. But in the end the traveler must think with his own palate and become a guide himself, in a varied and tempting world like few others.
