Certainly the provenance of the guide, at that particular moment in time, played to their advance. It’s a bit like, there are a zillion websites reviewing apps and computers in 2017, but what is top of the list? Techcrunch, from California, because surely them Silicon Valley playa know apps and computers better than anyone else. Back when food guides started, France was the SV of food - they set the bar, the culture and the rules everyone else had to play by.
I guess the Michelin Guide story is both about finding new ways to give customers reasons to buy more of your product, and about leveraging your cultural milieu to achieve your objectives.
