Review:
This autobiographical work tells the story of Emma becoming the first woman to be hired as a Michelin Guide Inspector. There's a bit about her initial training (reading, shadowing three experienced inspectors), her doubts, the tug-of-war between her personal life and her dream of doing this work, and her adventures across France and Japan (where she went on vacation).
A true foodie probably would have appreciated this more...or they might have found the bits about Thomas (her boyfriend, I think) even more annoying than I did. It got to the point where I was hoping she'd just dump him, since it was clear that he viewed her Michelin Guide Inspector work as a hobby she'd get over at some point and she had better chemistry with Marc, one of her new coworkers. Thomas kept coming up throughout the volume, but solely as missed calls and texts.
You could feel the sincere appreciation for food in the work. The illustrations were lovely and full-color - I could practically feel the weight of all the rich and heavy French foods myself. At one point, Emma went on vacation to Japan and ended up briefly losing her taste for richer French food in favor of lighter Japanese foods. I could understand why.
According to the volume, inspectors only got about half an hour of time at each location, which seemed way too short. Hopefully that didn't include food preparation time? I had other questions that weren't really answered either, like what it took for Emma to apply in the first place - she'd already applied and was waiting for a response at the beginning of the volume. How were applicants' abilities assessed?
If you're really interested in what Michelin Guide Inspectors go through, I don't know if this is the best resource, since a lot of the focus was more on Emma herself, but I still found this to be an interesting read overall.
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