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World's 50 Best Hotels

The World’s 50 Best Hotels to launch in 2023

The World’s 50 Best Hotels to launch in 2023 Earlier on this month World’s 50 Best organization had announced that it will now be releasing World’s 50 Best Hotels, along side their better known World’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s 50 Best Bars. Hurray! Now we have another hotel rating system to base our vocational decisions on. But how reliable is it going to be? And do we really need one? What hotel rating systems do already exist? The most widely used hotel ratings use stars and diamonds to rate hotels. The process of determining a hotel’s star rating is typically conducted by a third-party organization such as Mobil Travel Guide (yes, Michelin tire company rate restaurants and Mobil oil and gas – hotels… it all makes sense), nowadays known as Forbes Travel Guide. AAA (American Automobile Association) is also very popular hotel rating system that uses diamonds instead of stars. These organizations send anonymous inspectors to evaluate hotels on a variety of factors, including room cleanliness and maintenance, staff friendliness and helpfulness, and the overall condition of the property. It’s important to note that the star rating system is not uniform across all countries, and different countries may have different criteria for determining a hotel’s rating. For example in Europe the most well-known organization to rate hotels is the Hotelstars Union. The organization was established in 2010, and currently includes 20 European countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Hotelstars Union rating system uses a scale of one to five stars, with one star indicating a basic hotel and five stars indicating a luxury hotel. The criteria for determining a hotel’s rating include the quality of the accommodations, the level of service provided by staff, and the amenities offered. Another well-known hotel rating organization in Europe is the AA Hotel and Hospitality Services, that also uses a scale of one to five stars to rate hotels. However, several, we would even dare to say most popular European tourism destinations, do not use these systems so widely and instead prefer to use their own rating systems to classify hotels. For example, France’s hotels are rated by the Atout France, the French national tourist board, and Italy’s hotels are rated by Italian Hotel Classification, which is managed by the Italian National Tourist Board (ENIT).  Here’s a nice video to watch about the existing hotel rating systems, if you want to learn more about it. So here comes the question: do we really need another hotel rating agency? Well… World’s 50 Best Hotels won’t really be rating each hotel. Just like with restaurants and bars, any hotel would consider to be lucky just to make the list. So it’ll be more of an award, rather than a typical rating. How reliable will this hotel award system be? World’s 50 best promises it to be as reliable and objective as their other 2 lists are… 580 voters around the world, comprised of supposedly impartial industry professionals: 50% travel journalists, 30% hoteliers and 20% seasoned luxury travellers (so we are guessing, don’t expect to find any “non-luxury hotels” on the list), will vote on annual basis for the best hotel that they had supposedly visited that given year. We’ve all heard rumours on how in reality these ratings are being made… so let’s just leave it there. Maybe it’s going to be way better? It’s a brand new listing after all! New year, new beginnings! 580 people is a lot of people after all… The question remains nevertheless, whether another hotel rating / listing system is really needed… We’d say that it obviously is just another marketing tool. Those hotels that have already good marketing systems and important connections in place may be eligible to be “lucky” to get on the list. And good for them! Being on the list will definitely boost their occupancy during the year. Plus it’s kinda nice to have a unified list of Top Best Hotels in the whole world to aspire to visit one day. But if you are running an exceptional, but unknown hotel with no website, no social media and no marketing in place, don’t get illusional… it’s all about branding and connections.

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Michelin Guide

Michelin Guide hits Toronto

Michelin Guide hits Toronto After year and months of waiting and preparing for this event, Michelin Guide finally arrives in Toronto. And Toronto is just the start for Canada. Later on this year Michelin stars will be give out to more restaurants, this time in Vancouver. This year 13 restaurants in Toronto got lucky. 12 got 1 star each, and only 1 got 2 stars. Also 17 restaurants were noted in the Michelin Guide with Bid Gourmand destination.  What is Michelin Guide? In short, ”The Michelin Guides” are the travel guides for foodies released by the French tyre manufacturer Michelin since 1900. It is worth noting that initially they were created to boost the tyre sales by encouraging people to take longer trips and travel around the country. Traditionally only the finest and most noteworthy restaurants had been listed in the Michelin Guide. Each year their position is reviewed by anonymous critics. And each year new restaurants have a chance to be awarded with 1 to a max of 3 Michelin Stars by the guide.  What do Michelin Stars mean? Historically, the exact position of a restaurant in the Michelin rating means how far does Michelin recommend a person to travel to dine in this particular restaurant, i.e. if it’s worth the wearing off of tyres or not. A restaurant with one Michelin star is considered to be “very good restaurant in its category” and one with two stars is considered to be “excellent cooking, that’s worth a detour” because of its great food. The highest honour, however, is three stars, which is only given to establishments that provide “exceptional cuisine” that is “worth a special journey”. What about Bib Gourmand? There’s also another, lesser known award category in the Michelin Guide – Bid Gourmand. The Bib Gourmand award has been used to identify “good quality, good value restaurants” since 1997. Of course, the understanding of the value for money price point always varies country by country, depending on the cost of living. However, the quality of the food must always be taken into account as well alongside the cost. Another criteria for restaurants to be considered for a Bib Gourmand award is that have to have a more straightforward culinary style that is recognisable and approachable. Customer experience at a Bib restaurant should also be the one that leaves them feeling satisfied because they paid such a low sum for such excellent food. And there’s more… “The MICHELIN Green Star is an annual award which highlights restaurants at the forefront of the industry when it comes to their sustainable practices”. Michelin Guide Toronto, Canada Finally, let’s talk about the Canadian restaurants that had been awarded with stars and other Michelin awards in 2022. The only restaurant with 2 Michelin Stars Sushi Masaki Saito was the only 1 restaurant in Toronto, Canada, awarded with 2 Michelin Stars in 2022. In fact, no other restaurant in Toronto had received more stars this year. 1 Michelin Star restaurants in Toronto Alo A truly exceptional restaurant by the fellow George Brown College graduate, Chef Patrick Kriss. A restaurant with and impeccable and always consistent customer service, that I’m surprised didn’t receive more stars.  By the way, we even wrote a review on Alo a few years ago. If you’re curious, give it a read. Alobar Yorkville Another creation of Chef Patrick Kriss. More casual and more approachable, yet just as perfect in terms of food and customer service standards. Quetzal Modern, yet authentic Mexican restaurant with a wood-fired hot station. If you decide to visit Quetzal, we definitely recommend to have a sit at the bar area for the best wood fire views and most unique experience.  All the rest of the restaurants we personally haven’t been to, so below is the rest of the Toronto Michelin Guide list (1 Michelin Star restaurants) in no order of personal preference Edulis An absolute classic of Canadian French cuisine. Frilu Canadian farm to table experience.  Shoushin Traditional Sushi bar. Osteria Giulia Modern Italian. ABURI Hana Modern Japanese Kyō-Kaiseki. ENIGMA Yorkville Modern European cuisine. Kaiseki Yu-zen Hashimoto Traditional, authentic Kaiseki.  Don Alfonso 1890 What about Bib Gourmand restaurants? There were 17 restaurants in total, that had been awarded Bib Gourmand distinction in Toronto, Canada in 2022. Find the whole list HERE. Our take: The whole concept of professional Chefs embracing and building all their careers on the desire to be recognized by a tyre manufacturer company had always raised a lot of questions for us. In fact, a general idea of all these non food related companies creating food awards with debatable criteria and voting systems, had never settled well with many people. Most disturbing is the fact, that so many Chefs get obsessed and literally mentally ill with such awards chase, to the point of committing subside when they suddenly lose a star.  Nevertheless, these are the industry standards nowadays, although slowly changing. And all those restaurants that do make it to the award lists, do indeed deserve it and are worth to be celebrated. Want to learn how to cook like a Michelin Star Chef? Join my Online Culinary Academy TODAY, get your Chef’s training at your own time and speed, and start cooking note-worthy dishes Once enrolled, you’ll get a LIFETIME ACCESS to the academy, incl. all the new upcoming cooking lectures and modules.   https://youtu.be/a7XW5XodRE0 ENROLL Other blog posts you might like How to use cheesecloth in cooking – 6 ways (at least) Read HERE>> MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House burger Read HERE>> All dumplings of the world origin Read HERE>>

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MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House burger

MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House

MrBeast Burger vs Kevin Hart House The undisputed victory of MrBeast Burger over Kevin Hart House showcase absolutely clearly the power of YouTube and Social Media in general. Last week one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, MrBeast opened his first physical burger restaurant. To be clear, MrBeast is not a food YouTuber, he’s not a YouTube Chef, and in as a matter of fact his videos rarely have anything to do with food. Nevertheless, a 24 year old YouTuber / entrepreneur had managed to attract a crowd of more than ten thousand people for a relatively small burger joint opening in New Jersey mall and sell an unprecedented amount of burgers on the opening day. To paint an even more colorful picture of MrBeast Burger opening: people had camped out throughout the entire mall the day before, building a line for the MrBeast Burger. Check out this video Twit from MrBeast on the grand opening day of MrBeast Burger. Who is MrBeast? If you’re living under a rock and don’t know who MrBeast is, he is an entertainment YouTuber, known for giving out money to regular people, crazy challenges and changing peoples lives. MrBeast’s total audience on YouTube as of this date is close to two hundred thousand million of subscribers over several YouTube Channels. While as his total views over time are already over twenty five billion, i.e. his videos had been watched over 25b times.  Meanwhile, around the same time, at the end of August this year, one of the biggest comedians of our days, a popular movie star, best-selling book author, Kevin Hart had also opened his first burger joint, Hart House, in the city of stars, the place where all the celebrities traditionally flock, in Los Angeles.  How popular is Kevin Hart? Kevin Hart’s popularity is a bit more difficult to calculate than MrBeast’s. There’s no direct viewership, readership or followership numbers for his movies, stand-up shows, or books. However, let’s put some numbers here to have an idea of how popular Kevin Hart is and if we can even compare him with MrBeast. If we look at Social Media only, Kevin Hart’s instagram account alone has more than hundred fifty million followers and TikTok – thirty million followers. But wait, you might say, Kevin Hart isn’t known for his social media, he’s not really a SM content creator. True, so let’s have a look at the figures that he’s actually known for. Movies. Kevin Hart’s highest grossing movie alone, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, had made $962,542,945 in world-wide sales. Which means that at least fifty million people had watched Jumanji. And that’s just one movie featuring Kevin Hart, he played in about 90 movies and TV series.  Shows. Year after year Kevin Hart proofs to be the most successful comedian in the world, selling over one millions tickets world-wide for his shows. Forbes even named him “the king of comedy”. Books. Book sales are harder to calculate, no publisher really releases this info, but let’s just note that his “I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons” memoir had been listed among the best-sellers on Audible for years in a row ever since 2017, when it was originally published.  Simply put, if we were to compare Kevin Hart’s fame to MrBeast’s fame based just on numbers, it might be reasonably comparable. Are MrBeast and Kevin Hart famous foodies? Just like MrBeast, Kevin Hart has little to do with food. To put it in other words, neither of them are commonly associated with the culinary world.  Nevertheless, despite all the comparability in fame, when it comes to customer loyalty, general influence and the actual physical product launch, Kevin Hart does not seem to stand even close to MrBeast. Let’s just say, no-one is talking numbers and record sales when it comes to Kevin Hart’s Hart House burger place grand opening.   Our take: This blog post is not about who’s food offering is better, it’s more of an observation over how powerful YouTube community could be for physical products and services sales, and how much digital marketing and presence can win over the traditional media brand marketing. Playing an active part in the restaurant industry in North America, I personally cannot get tired of being shocked and astounded by how much the industry underestimates the importance of Social Media, especially YouTube. The industry that continuously barely survives by tiny margins, suffers the most from any kind of inflation and crisis. The industry that generally cannot afford to pay people fair wages. This same industry choses to ignore Social Media or at most not take it very seriously, consequently completely disregarding the power of a brand building and loosing in direct sales each and single day.  My online CULINARY ACADEMY Join TODAY and get an EARLY BIRD discount Once enrolled, you’ll get a LIFETIME ACCESS to the academy, incl. all the new upcoming cooking lectures and modules.   https://youtu.be/a7XW5XodRE0 ENROLL Other blog posts you might like All dumplings of the world origin Read HERE>> EASY guide to creating recipes like a Chef Read HERE>> Modern Paella Amuse Bouche recipe Read HERE>>

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