Cooking with Hollywood: Ratatouille 9

Thinking about restaurant critics is an interesting topic. In Ratatouille, the critic was well known and the kitchen had the opportunity to respond when he walked in the door. The Michelin food critics are, however, anonymous. Those that criticize that system wonder how you can assess the validity of their opinions if you don't know who they are or what their credentials are. Michelin says, however, that their critics are highly trained, experienced and organized. They eat at all kinds of different restaurants twice a day and submit long, detailed reports on every experience. For many years, the Michelin critics were criticized for being highly influenced by expectations that restaurants would follow French haute cuisine rules and ideas. i.e. traditional methods. Recent articles, however, seem to opine that they are trying to accept and give credit to new ideas and methods. As we speak, Michelin is creating a rating system for US restaurants. It is, however, interesting that most of the best rated chefs are French and/or trained in France, isn't it?