It is a record in the matter: this Friday July 24, a copy of the Michelin guide of the year 1900 was auctioned for the sum of € 26,500 (excluding fees), at the Clermont-Ferrand auction house. Ferrand. The buyer is a French starred chef who therefore had to spend € 33,549 in total. The last record dates back to 2015, with a sale of € 22,000 excluding fees.
Bernard Vassy, auctioneer quoted in a press release, underlined “the attachment of collectors” and in particular starred chefs to the “Guide Rouge Michelin” brand, with a vintage whose value “has practically increased fivefold” in twenty years.
Popular with starred chefs
In 1900, the little red booklet had been distributed free of charge to some 35,000 copies by the brand in the Bibendum with the aim of “encouraging and facilitating car trips from city to city”, Pierre Gabriel Gonzalez told AFP. , organizer of the International Convention of Michelin Collectors.
The guide thus gave “the coordinates in each city in alphabetical order of the hotel, of the blacksmith who had initiated the repair of cars, of the grocer who sold the cans of gasoline…”.
The guide became chargeable in 1920, when Michelin removed advertising from its pages and began recommending restaurants.
Today, “the chefs often display in the entry of their restaurants the guides in which they are quoted” and “little by little, a certain number of them took to the game of having the complete collection “, detailed Mr. Gonzalez.
In 2000, one of the first 1900 guides to auction was sold to Michelin-starred chef Pierre Troisgros.
Via LaDepeche
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