Trouble about licenses
Discord at Gault&Millau: Is the restaurant guide in Germany about to end?
Gault&Millau was founded in France in 1969 and the restaurant guide has been available in Germany since 1983.
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There are rumblings at Gault&Millau. The parent brand wants to get rid of the German licensee Henris Edition and is making serious allegations. He has been operating without valid licenses for months.
Is the German edition of Gault&Millau about to end? There has been great excitement since the end of last week. The allegations currently being made by the parent brand against the licensee, the Munich publisher Henris Edition, are serious. Accordingly, the publisher has been using the name Gault&Millau unlawfully for months and the license agreement has long since been terminated. At Henri’s Edition, however, people appear surprised and ready to fight, and “legal steps” are being examined. What’s behind the rift?
The news comes as a surprise. It was only at the beginning of February that Gault&Millau Germany announced that it wanted to completely reposition itself. Last summer, Christoph Wirtz left his post as editor-in-chief of the restaurant guide after three years. His last issue had been one for the history books. For the first time in the four decades in which the guide has been published, women dominated the top. Among other things, a “Female Chef of the Year” was honored for the first time. Wirtz left a gap that wasn’t filled for months.
Gault&Millau Germany – an attempt at revolution
The guide had announced extensive modernizations for the coming test season. In the future, a council of experts should be responsible for restaurant reviews and the results should no longer be published annually, but rather promptly after the anonymous visits. A novelty for which the Gault&Millau by Henris app was revised. In addition, normal restaurant guests should also be given the opportunity to give feedback via the app. Behind this is a move away from exclusive expertise towards a more democratic evaluation. If the opinions of amateurs and professionals differ too widely, then, according to the idea, the restaurant should be tested again if in doubt.
This all seems to have met with little approval in France. In a so-called clarification on the alleged termination of the license agreement, which is said to have been valid since November 16th, the parent brand distances itself. Gault&Millau “expressly rejects any association with the evaluation systems and methods” currently used by the “former partner” and which have “neither been approved nor confirmed” by the brand. They did not in any way reflect the standards, ethics and values that the brand has stood for since its inception. The letter even mentions that such practices are capable of “deceiving both industry professionals and the general public.” The termination of the cooperation is justified, among other things, by the violation of contractual obligations and non-payment.
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Tug of war over Gault&Millau license rights
Gault&Millau and Germany are a story with many twists and turns. For more than 30 years, starting in 1983, Christian Verlag published the German edition of the restaurant guide, and in 2017 ZS Verlags GmbH took over. But as early as 2020, the scepter was passed on to Hubert Burda Media, until two years later the licensing rights finally went to ex-Burda manager Hans Fink and his wife, who founded the Henris Edition publishing house. And now?
Henri’s edition vehemently denies all accusations. The license agreement is still valid and the costs have been paid in full up to and including 2025. “The news currently circulating is damaging to reputation and business and will be emphatically rejected,” read a statement published last Friday afternoon.
If one follows this explanation, at least the accusation of arrears in payments would be off the table, but criticism of the working methods would not be. In fact, the German licensees have been cooking their own soup for a long time. Among other things, it caused a stir in the industry when the 2022 Guide said goodbye to the international standard Gault&Millau rating system and forewent the globally known rating points. The result: many top chefs lost their points. Instead, there is now a simplified system; only one to five toques are awarded, with five toques being reserved only for the best restaurants in the world. In the world of Gault&Millau, this is a unique selling point. One that appears to be bitter for the parent brand.
word agains word
A look at the homepage of the German Gault&Millau could have been a first indication that things were going wrong. The official German website linked to the parent brand has been unavailable for weeks. Instead, the German Gault&Millau now uses a copy of the site as its official homepage. As “Falstaff” claims to have learned from internal circles, this was set up due to technical problems with the original site. In view of the latest developments, this statement can at least be read with a question mark.
The dispute is currently one of statement against statement. It cannot be ruled out that in the end the courts will have to decide who is right. In any case, the publisher Henris Edition has already announced that it wants to examine legal steps.
Sources: Hogapage, PM Henri’s Edition, FAZ, Gault&Millau, gaultmillau-media.com, rolling pin, FalstaffPM Gault&Millau Paris