Will TikTok Eat The Michelin Guides Lunch?

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In the summer I traveled to Spain with my wife and son.

Between plates laden with Iberian ham and a few Aperol Spritz extras, we decided to visit the gastronomic mecca of the city of San Sebastián. Our only objective: to eat at Mugaritz, a restaurant with two Michelin stars.

As my wife and I gobbled down lobster and sake wraps (don't ask), we wondered if one day our son would embark on his Michelin-inspired journey and join the crowd of enthusiasts who made the Michelin guide the gold standard. prepared food. . Food.

Or would the guide, with his inspection of more than 15,000 restaurants in 35 areas, fall victim to the disruption that has caused so many tribal guards?

As with so many forms of modern culture, from music to books to movies, the challenge may well come from TikTok.

The short-form video app now has over a billion users. In the United States, 100 million people search for TikTok's incredibly efficient recommendation algorithm and spend an average of 80 minutes a day on the app, "more than the time they spend together on Facebook and Instagram", according to the Washington Post.

Meanwhile, TikTok's video editing tools, 45-60 second quick shots and full-frame images are made for food.

"Searching for food on TikTok offers an experience you won't find anywhere else on the internet," says Danny Kim, a TikTok food influencer with 3.7 million @DannyGrubs followers. "Google and Yelp don't show the full experience of walking into a restaurant and seeing the food come out in real time."

Kim was a former engineer but moved into food media after his blog on the Washington food scene (Eat the Capital) gained traction. He's been rewarded multiple times over the past year with short cooking challenges like "Can you make a gourmet meal out of McDonald's Chicken Nuggets?"

In a phone conversation, Kim tells me that these digital views turn into real customers and that TikTok is the best converter for restaurants. The app brings more people through the door to Instagram, which is hugely popular with food influencers.

The trend of TikTok restaurants is certainly not anecdotal. In June, a Google executive said that "nearly 40% of young people looking for a place to have lunch don't go to Google Maps or Google Search... they go to TikTok or Instagram."

And short-form videos are now ubiquitous, with TikTok clones everywhere, from Instagram reels to YouTube shorts to Snap Spotlight (those apps will really take off from Chinese-owned TikTok under a US ban).

“I think Gen Z prefers visual search,” says Turner Novak, venture capitalist, founder of Banana Capital and author of The Split newsletter. "You see it in TikTok's engagement, which has gotten to the point where Google is rolling out more visual search tools to mimic TikTok's For You page."

As the younger generation increasingly turns to TikTok for food recommendations, Michelin could become the culinary equivalent of the Oscars or Emmys. Are the judges of excellence less and less important?

I posed this question to Ben Liebmann, former COO of Noma, the 3-star Michelin restaurant founded by Danish superstar chef Rene Redzepi.

Liebmann summarized the many threats to Michelin's influence since the turn of the century:

• The World's 50 Best Restaurants: The 2002 launch of British media company William Reed Ltd., surveyed over 1,000 food experts and then ranked the world's restaurants from 1 to 50.

• “Chef's Table”: The streaming show, which launched on Netflix in 2015, catapulted the chefs who introduced it to star status and increased restaurant traffic (a rise in popularity usually reserved for newcomers). michelin star recipients).

• Instagram: The photo-sharing app was acquired by Facebook in 2012 and, with its glamorous aesthetic, before TikTok was social media canon for restaurants (Liebmann says Instagram is still a much-loved social channel). more important than Noma)

TikTok's food recommendations are the latest, but Michelin's reputation, built on a system of anonymous inspectors and strict rating guidelines, remains the ultimate goal, according to Liebmann.

"I don't think Michelin is going anywhere," said Liebmann, who now runs Understory, a media production and consulting company. “Do we have to redefine it for a new generation? Or is your content migrating and telling your stories on new platforms or new media? There are definitely opportunities there. Regardless of what you think of the star-studded guide and review, the brand still stands for something.

What do TikTok natives think of Michelin?

Kim (aka @DannyGrubs) wants to know more about the Star Awards process and thinks Anonymous Detectives are the polar opposite of someone speaking directly to the camera. The latter prioritizes authenticity, which is very important to Gen Z audiences. Despite this, the Eat the Capital founder gives his money to Michelin.

"One thing about Michelin is that you usually have a good dining experience," Kim says. "It will be safe and a standard of cleanliness will be maintained and the chef will be of a high standard."

In a nod to the star rating system, some of the @DannyGrubs challenges require chefs to make a "Michelin-level" soup or dish using just $10 worth of ingredients.

Does Michelin also need a TikTok strategy?

Liebmann does not think so. To remain relevant in the decades to come, Michelin would not have to jump onto new platforms, but redouble its original mission: to solve the question of where to eat.

Of course, the original Michelin guide was created to convince French motorists to roam the continent in search of good food while driving on Michelin tires (even the origin story has become an incredible meme).

But it is still in its infancy in terms of global coverage: the Guide was first launched in the United States in 2005, before other major non-European economies joined in 2007 (Japan) and 2017 ( China). And as my columnist Bobby Ghosh recently commented, he has just arrived in Istanbul.

If Michelin is now of course present online, the brand's flagship products remain the physical guides (more than 30 million lifetime sales) and live events to reveal the stars.

In recent years, tourist boards have paid the Michelin Platinum mark to publish a guide for their towns (to be clear, this is just for inspectors to show up). According to Eater, the South Korean tourist board paid Michelin $1.8 million to launch a guide to Seoul in 2016, and the Thai government paid $4.4 million over five years, starting in Bangkok. in 2017.

A report from Ernst & Young suggests that this money is money well spent: 71% of frequent travelers are willing to “spend more if there was a Michelin guide option”.

Fortunately, the latest Michelin star winner is much closer to me than to Spain. In fact, that's where I live: Vancouver (which also has a good supply of Aperol Spritz). So keep your eyes peeled for a short 30 second video detailing my first Michelin starred meal in my hometown.

More from Bloomberg's opinion:

• Indian restaurant boom mirrors Asheville's: Bobby Ghosh

Losing Airbnb Hosts Has Three Options: Theresa Ghilarducci

• Burgerville is the future of fast food: Amanda Little

This column does not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors or of Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Trung Phan co-hosts the Not Investment Advice podcast and writes the SatPost newsletter. He was previously a senior editor for Hustle, a technology newsletter.

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I worked in a 3 star Michelin restaurant, guess which one?