Why Does Gordon Ramsay Losing His Michelin Stars Have Everything to Do With You and Your Nonprofit? (2024)

As of this writing, Gordon Ramsey has lost nine of his 16 Michelin stars. Why is this significant?

Michelin stars are the crem de la crem of prestigious awards for chefs worldwide. The Michelin Brothers of famed Michelin tires created the Michelin Guide book as a directory of places of interest for travelers with popular hotels, tourist locations, and restaurants. Over time, people paid particular attention to the restaurants, so much so that Michelin hired a team of anonymous restaurant reviewers to highlight restaurants serving meals of the highest quality. Out of this team of anonymous restaurant reviewers was born the famed Michelin rating of 0,1,2, or 3 stars. The rest is history.

If you ask Gordan Ramsey or any chef what it feels like to lose a Michelin star - it is devastating. Upon hearing of the loss, Cheatseat reported Gordan Ramsey's saying, "I started crying when I lost my stars. It's a very emotional thing for any chef. It's like losing a girlfriend. You want her back."

Why did acclaimed chef and restaurateur Gordan Ramsey lose his Michelin stars? Distractify explained the reason for the loss of stars in a quote from Michael Ellis, Michelin’s Guide Director: "We've had issues with consistency, and consistency is a huge thing for us."

A Michelin star win is won and maintained through a few factors:

• Serving quality dishes year over year never knowing when the next anonymous reviewer may visit
• Putting quality metrics to make sure nothing slips through the cracks
• Are based on the collective talents of both the chef AND the day-to-day execution of the restaurant staff.

In Gordan Ramsey's case, the loss was attributed to several factors. After selling the restaurant to another entity, the chef was no longer active in day-to-day operations and the quality dropped.

What does this mean for you?

If you are a fellow grant writer or business owner reading this article, understand you are not in the business of whatever you think you are doing. You are in the business of establishing trust by consistently delivering high-quality service or products to your clients.

If you are a nonprofit leader, your Michelin stars are earned through (by):

• The quality of your programs and the ability to communicate your impact in the community. Your impact is communicated by submitting reports to current funders and telling your impact story throughout the community for potential future funders.
• You are building a reputation of trust. Funders will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will see a ten-fold return on their investment in the form of your work in the community through your demonstrated and proven track record.
• Active engagement from leadership in a good way. This does not necessarily mean micromanaging your team or bouts of founders syndrome. This means hiring dedicated, talented people while having an operations structure in place for quality control.
• A coordinated effort from every member of your organization. Everyone should be equally invested in creating a culture of consistently meeting metrics of success and constantly re-examining your programming to ensure you are meeting the needs of those you serve.

Link to original article: https://www.distractify.com/p/why-did-gordon-ramsay-lose-michelin-stars

-Shavonn

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Shavonn Richardson, MBA, GPC is Founder and CEO of Think and Ink Grant Consulting™. She is a Grant Professional Association Approved Trainer, presenter, and speaker. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Grant Professionals Association.

Shavonn earned a BBA from Howard University and an MBA from Emory University. She earned the GPC (Grant Professional Certified) credential from the Grant Professionals Certification Institute in 2020.