Hours before the release of the 2016 Michelin guide, French-born chef Benoit Violier, owner of the three-starred restaurant Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville, died of what experts believe was a self-inflicted shotgun injury.
"The world's best chef" was purportedly driven to suicide by extreme stress over the possibility of losing his third star, and he was not alone. In 2003, another French chef, Bernard Loiseau, killed himself after rumours that his restaurant, La Cote d'Or, was in danger of losing Michelin's highest accolade. In the pressure-cooker environment of haute cuisine, losing a star can be a devastating blow for a chef's reputation and his restaurant's bottom line.
The term Michelin star has become a household name for most consumers, and for restaurateurs an achievement equivalent to an Olympic gold medal or a Pulitzer Prize. An honour in the ultra-competitive world of fine dining that is worth living and, for some, dying for.
Bangkok's very own crimson Michelin guides were just published and will hit the capital's major bookstores in less than a month.
The tyre company's journey to the pinnacle of fine dining, however, began in 1889 when Andre and Edouard Michelin devised a guide that would promote travel, and hence the purchase of tyres, by listing hotels, gas stations and restaurants along the road.
In 1926, the guide started designating fine-dining restaurants with a star.
Five years later the company introduced the ranking as it is known today.
Ranking Bangkok
Michelin ranks close to 40,000 establishments in 24 territories, including 126 in Bangkok.
Jay Fai, owner of one-star street food restaurant Jay Fai, holds the guide.
No restaurant in the Thai capital obtained the maximum honour of three stars, but three snatched two stars, including owner and chef Gaggan Anand's eponymous, progressive Indian cuisine outpost, which has topped Asia's 50 Best Restaurants' ranking for the third year in a row.
"My food has not changed, but today people will look at me and go -- he's got two stars," Mr Anand said on Wednesday.
"Bangkok boasts one of the highest star-to-rated-restaurant ratios of any city, and certainly one of the highest for a newly rated city," said Segsarn Trai-Ukos, country director of Michelin Thailand. "It is also remarkable that we have four women receiving stars, two of whom are in their 20s."
The ranking also lists 14 one-star establishments, including the small seafood outpost of 70-year-old Jay Fai -- also known as the queen of street food -- who made a name thanks to her generous crab portions and her insistence on wearing goggles to protect her eyes from the scorching oil of the wok.
"Before, I knew the Michelin name but I did not know it had anything to do with cooking," said Mrs Jay at Wednesday's award ceremony. "I am very proud, but I have to return to the kitchen on Thursday because we don't have a lot of staff."
The guide, known for its emphasis on fine dining, has been increasingly willing to award stars to less than glamorous locations.
Last year, Singapore's chicken rice hawker stand Liao Fan received a star.
"While media tend to focus on starred restaurants, there are many other establishments in the guide," said Claire Dorland Clauzel, Michelin's executive vice-president for sustainable development and external relations.
In addition to its famous star rankings, the guide designates favourite restaurants that offer value for money (below 1,000 baht) under its Bib Gourmand category, which includes 18 food vendors in this year's guide.
In fact, the guide lists "the entire encyclopedia of Thai street food", said Michael Ellis, international director of the guide, including the pad Thai institution Baan Yai Phad Thai, and traditional fried chicken outpost Polo Fried Chicken.
From table to bookstore
The process of launching a guide started years before the iconic red books hit the stands.
"Michelin does things seriously. We can't launch a dozen guides every year," said Ms Dorland.
Bangkok came ahead of Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Manila on Michelin's list of potential markets. Asked why the brand would choose Bangkok over other markets in Southeast Asia, she said the government and Thai tourism demanded it.
"Years ago we conducted a study of the market and concluded here we have the willingness, the landscape and the potential to launch the guide," said Ms Dorland. "There is a lot of hidden work in deciding whether a given city has the appropriate gastronomic landscape or not."
Choosing which restaurants to rate makes up a large part of the behind-the-scenes work of putting together a guide, but Ms Dorland declined to disclose how many restaurants were inspected.
Mr Segsarn said Bangkok had proven itself to be a mature enough food culture to support the guide, and has larger potential than cities like Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur.
"In Bangkok you see people eating out often, with access to high-quality ingredients, which are signs of a high potential market," he said.
Ms Dorland said as soon as a location is decided upon, Michelin hires and trains local inspectors.
"Although we have inspectors from Europe coming here, we want to have a local team to be sure they appreciate local cuisine," she said.
All inspectors must come from the "gastronomy landscape" and have "concrete experience" in the hotel, restaurant or wine business.
Candidates go through a training process that can last up to six months, and in which experienced inspectors from Europe or elsewhere are flown into Thailand to test a candidate through a series of meal tests.
"We grade them on their ability to judge a meal and communicate effectively. They have to remember everything, since they can't take notes during a meal," said Ms Dorland.
"We don't focus on service or the decorations, but on the plate," she said.
For Michelin, a meal is based on five criteria: quality of the products, mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine, value for money and consistency between visits.
An inspector, always disguised as a customer, will visit a restaurant anywhere from one to five times before submitting a report.
"We don't do a guide for chefs, but for customers, so we want to make sure that you will get the same quality of food, whether you visit in September or at Christmas," said Ms Dorland.
The quality of ingredients is an often overlooked element that plays a pivotal role in star decisions.
"We used to say that quality of ingredients is 50% of the cooking," she said.
Decisions are not made by the inspector of the restaurant but by the whole star committee.
"Unanimity is the key, and no star can be awarded until everyone in the room reaches a decision," said Mr Segsarn.
The period after the decisions are handed out is critical for both inspectors and restaurateurs, as some inspectors will contact the company to learn about their performance.
"It is always possible to contact the chefs to understand them better. We want to know their projects and what kind of cuisine they want to create. We are here to listen," he said.
The Michelin guide has sometimes been accused of favouring French and Japanese cuisines. While all of Michelin's inspectors in Bangkok are locals, none of Bangkok's top three restaurants are Thai. Le Normandie and Mezzaluna serve European fare, and Gaggan, managed by a chef born and raised in India, serves a mostly Indian menu.
"You may think there is a bias towards European cuisine, but our guide is wanted around the world. Bangkok has a lot of good foreign cuisine, and we are not making a guide for Thai food, but for Bangkok," said Ms Dorland.
"Today gastronomy is international. Gaggan, for example, has a lot of influences, and if you look into our French guides you will see a lot non-European restaurants and Asian influences. It's hard to say there is a European bias when you have so many street food restaurants in the guide."
Business over lunch
The Michelin guide was given away for free for close to two decades, until Andre Michelin saw his guides being used to support a work bench at a tyre shop. Believing the guide would only gain respect if it was sold, the company started retailing the book for about seven francs in 1920, which was then equivalent to US$2.
Today the guide does not form a substantial part of the company's revenue. In fact it loses money, said Ms Dorland.
"Moving forward we have plans to develop this into a business focused around gastronomy travel, but for now it is important in terms of branding," she said.
Mr Segsarn said the guide helps keep a spotlight on the tyre maker.
"When people look at cars, they rarely look at the tyres," he said. "In the tyre business, people have contact with the brand every two or three years, so this is a way to maintain brand awareness."
Moving forward, building a strong brand in Thailand will be important for Michelin.
The market is expected to hit the $5 billion mark before 2022, and will grow at an average rate of 8% through 2020. While Michelin is one of the top two players in the market, it faces strong competition from the likes of Goodyear, Yokohoma and Bridgestone, all of which also operate production facilities in the country.
From 2015 to 2016, demand for radial and bias tyres declined 3% in Thailand, and demand for replacement radial and bias tyres was down 12%.
"The market in Thailand is doing better than last year," said Mr Segsarn.
Thailand is one of Michelin's most important centres of production.
"Our two major production centres in Asia are in Thailand and China. Thailand's volume exceeds that of India, and is almost equal to that of China, but 50% of its products are destined for export," he said.
All of the company's Harley Davidson tyres and a good percentage of its aircraft tyres are produced in one of its six plants in Thailand.
"Thanks to the guide we have more social media contact with our consumers. When you look at a market like China, more than half of the contacts are made through the guide," said Ms Dorland.
The guide, its proponents say, will not only benefit the culinary scene in the country, but also the agricultural and tourism industries.
The guide has been credited with fuelling the tourist boom in Tokyo, the city with the most Michelin stars.
"There is a lot of talk about the chefs featured in the guide, but the farm sector and other producers of quality ingredients will also derive benefits from the guide," said Ms Dorland.
The expected economic impact may explain why the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) shelled out 144 million baht in partnership with Michelin to bring the guide to the city.
Segsarn Trai-Ukos, country director of Michelin Thailand.