The Unexpected Origin of the Michelin Star

The Michelin star system is a guide that rates restaurants out of three stars and the Michelin tire company sells…you guessed it, tires! But how are these two companies linked to one another?

The Michelin tire company was invented in 1889 by two French brothers, André and Édouard Michelin. However, there were only 3,000 tires in the whole of France. The brothers had to come up with a way to sell people more tires. So they invented a free guide of all the best hotels, gas stations, mechanics and restaurants, in order to get people to explore France in their cars. As the years went on the brothers realized that people mainly wanted to know which restaurants were best. So they decided to start rating the restaurants with their Michelin stars. 

Over a century after they both began, the guide rates over 40,000 establishments in over 24 territories, across 3 continents, while Michelin sells 200 million tires a year!