Cooks tour
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Good Food Guide revised edition 1968 edited by Raymond Postgate (Consumers' Association and Hodder and Stoughton 21s)
'The vocabulary of "Bradshaw"' (said Sher- lock Holmes) 'is nervous and tense, but limited. The selection of words would hardly lend itself to messages of a general nature.'
As Bradshaw, so Michelin. What it can say, it says with poignant clarity. The Auberge Quelquechose is given three knives and forks, one star, a gridiron (air conditionne), a motor mascot (piscine de plein air) and one of those things like birds that are meant to be M. Bibendum, the Michelin tyre man, in a rocking chair (situation tranquille). It has its three specialities and two local wines, doesn't let dogs in (portrait of retriever with bend sinister), the meals cost so many francs; and now com- pare the Rotisserie Anonyme, on the line below, and see it rated by exactly the same standards. The differing number of gables on the hotels, the subtly varied pictures of baths and bidets, the obscured rectangle that says 'douche publique'—how expressive they are; and yet how much they cannot say.
For Michelin classifies, but does not des- cribe. Occasionally—as with the great Bau-
maniere at Les Baux; five red knives and forks, three stars, a red bird, repas a la carte 47 a 81 f— an evocative phrase appears within red square brackets: 'Demeures anciennes amenagees avec elegance: terrasse fleurie et piscine: club hippique.' (That club hippique, now—some of us have long felt the need to bring first-class catering to the racecourse: how much more imaginative to bring the race- course to a first-class restaurant. Perhaps it means something else.) But this is a rarity. It is as though Bradshaw, in tracing the 10.46 from Didcot on its way towards Swindon, had paused to recommend the unusually fine views of the White Horse to be obtained near Uffing- ton Junction.
These assessments would only be possible in the find of the cuisine classique, for it assumes standards that everybody knows and accepts. Among the Paris restaurants, there is a section for apeetultues etrangeres, where one Russian and four Italian restaurants actually earn stars.
1414kni recommendation for the cuisine anglaise? What do you think?) But you would never upd Michelin giving, as Postgate gives, the supreme honour to a Chinese restaurant. Serious eating is French eating. This makes Michelin a conservative influence, but it has something important to conserve. Expressions which have an exact meaning are used with such vagueness on English menus as to make ordering a lottery. The point is elegantly made by the Michelin itself, in its multilingual intro- duction : repas coignes—pasti accurati—good meals.
That this year's Michelin has deprived Mere Brazier and the Auberge de Noyes of their third stars, promoting Barrier of Tours and the Troisgros at Roanne in their place, is only of academic interest while there are no more than fifty pounds to the traveller and eleven and three quarter francs to the pound. Guide-users should, as before, go for the one-star restau- rants, beware too many knives and forks, stick to the tables d'hôte, and note the local wines. To imagine a Postgate entry in Michelin— open red brackets: 'jolies fines de salle Chel- seaoises en bas noirs qui client au passe-plats "Hey, Faiso!"': close red brackets—is to see how President Postgate describes but does not classify. His messages are of a general nature, and there is nothing limited about his style. True, the Guide is based on reports from the Good Food Club's members, and could not operate without them. It is no less true that the Guide bears its president's unmistakable stamp.
The new edition of the Good Food Guide is adjusted for changes that have overtaken res- taurants already recommended. There are no new entries, and the provisional recommenda- tions remain provisional. This can be absurd, as when the guide calls for `more reports' on Alvaro's, surely the most over-reported of them all. But in a country where restaurants rise and fall like yo-yos, it can be essential to know that the Snooks 'Arms has been bought by a brewery, or that culinary autocrat Mr Pichel-Juan has moved house. And the presi- dent gently lays a wreath on the grave of Gerard Harris, who at Aston Clinton showed the post-war generation what a restaurant could be.
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