A Guide To The World's Best Fine Dining Restaurants

While most have heard of the Michelin guide, which gives 3-stars to no stars, Gault Millau & Gayot rate restaurants on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being perfection which there is none. Both guides seem to more fully understand the 'nature of materials' than other guides, as seen by the lower ranking of most California restaurants and Michelin 3-stars in France that have only a 17 rating. Also, there is a deeper respect for the chef's who have been giants (Daniel, Jean-George,...) by being less concerned about consistency than Michelin. 

Gault&Millau (for France and some other countries ratings)
Gault&Millau began in 1965 by two restaurant critics- Henri Gault and Christian Millau. They are considered more food focused due to the main system being based purely on the quality of the food. Gault Millau rates on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest. Restaurants given below 10 points are rarely listed. The points are awarded based on the quality of the food, with comments about service, price or the atmosphere of the restaurant given separately. The company is located in Geneva, Switzerland.

Source: Gault Millau.(2022). Wikipedia. Retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gault_Millau

Issues   
Their top ten restaurants, rated 19.5 reflect several restaurants that Michelin does not even give 3-stars. Gault&Millau have a chef-centric loyalty to the elder statesmen chefs with a long history or call them culinary 'nobility'. To illustrate this chef-centricity, a few examples of 19.5 chefs include:


  • 'Immortals of French cuisine' by Gault&Millau include Guy Savoy and Alain Ducasse
  • Chef of the year by Gault&Millau Michel Trama
  • Michel Guérard, who has held 3-stars for 45 years, and George Blanc for 41 years
  • Le Pré Catelan founded by Le Notre- the most famous patissier of the 20th century


Gault& Millau appears to look at their best dishes or masterpieces of the top chefs that some Michelin 3-stars have not, and weighs lower level dishes to a lesser significance in their rating. Michelin appears to only consider a restaurant's execution of all dishes with a heavy emphasis on consistency and never who the chef is.

Gayot (for United States ratings)
André Gayot who with his friends, Henri Gault and Christian Millau, invented the term “Nouvelle Cuisine” in the early ’70s had been directing sophisticated travelers to the best restaurants….. since 1969. Rankings reflect only Gayot’s opinion of the food, including the quality of the ingredients and the creativity of the chef. The décor, service, ambience and wine list are commented on within each review.  

Source: About Us. (n.d). Gayot. Retrieved from:
https://www.gayot.com/about-us/about-us/


See 'Restaurant Ratings by City' on their website which, includes over 90 markets in the United States. The company is located in Los Angeles, California.

Issues   
They are less stringent on consistency and longer on reputation, which could be a concern to some. As mentioned previously, top United States and French chefs Daniel Boulud, Jean-George and Michel Trama lost their third star but still retain a 19 ranking from Gayot. Gayot and Gault & Millau, I believe reflect a great 'chef-centric' loyalty, where Michelin does not. Which perspective for a rating is more correct? Forbes seems to agree with Gayot in the United States, as do I and many others who have not seen the inconsistency as noteworthy enough to have a ranking downgrade that Michelin has done to these chefs. I will take the greatest chefs with a bit of inconsistency than other top restaurants that do not appeal to me for numerous reasons. Also, they do not have the 'time in business' hurdle that Michelin requires, evidenced by O' by Claude Le Tohic - San Francisco, Thierry Marx in Paris, etc.. who were Gayot and Gault & Millau 19 rated at other restaurants. Personally I prefer not to wait to know who the latest Gayot and 19 level restaurants are. 

Summary - Preferred Usage
Gayot like Gault&Millau, is the most accurate of all the 'established' guides in my opinion, with the 20-point rating scale, and is more purist in its approach to only ranking the quality of the food. Their coverage in the United States is very complete, where Michelin is not though internationally their coverage is spotty compared to Michelin. The first and last place (Michelin is the second place) I look to find the latest rankings in almost every market in the United States and secondarily for 'most' of Europe.