“A democratized Michelin Guide.” Or even more: “A sort of concierge on speed.” This is how Élise Tastet describes the application she has just developed. Tastet allows you to find a restaurant depending on where you are: from the small neighborhood dive to the big restaurant to the ice cream parlor. Type of food, atmosphere, price of the meal, she wanted to create a tool that no one will be able to do without.
Élise Tastet is the founder of a platform that bears her name. For 10 years, some three million users have consulted its site annually, which evaluates restaurants, cafes, bars, almost everywhere across Quebec, and gives their assessment of them. There is also news about the world of catering.
Daughter of culinary critic Jean-Philippe Tastet, the young woman was, by her own admission, practically raised in restaurant dining rooms and kitchens. Very attentive to the needs of Internet users who consult her site, she quickly noticed that they were constantly looking for recommendations in the form of a real concierge service.
“Many people told me that when they were looking for a lunch restaurant on the corner of the street to take a client, they had trouble finding one quickly,” she says on the phone. And that’s where the idea of developing Tastet came from, a project she worked on for four years.
Important information: no restaurateur can pay to be listed in the directory, insists the businesswoman. Tastet pays for the meals of the evaluators who sit at the different establishments.
“You can’t give me money for referrals. We send people and they evaluate the restaurant according to a grid. The idea is to try to send the right consumer to the right place. »
For the moment, more than 1000 addresses have been listed in Quebec, Canada and Paris. Since launching two weeks ago, Tastet has over 6,000 downloads.
Over the coming months, restaurants in other cities around the world will be added to the app. Also very soon, “people will be able to create their own taste profile.” And thanks to an algorithm, they will receive personalized recommendations. “For example, if you like the Monarque restaurant in Montreal, here is an address you might like in Paris. »
Foodies who don’t like waiting in line before they can hope to be served a meal won’t receive recommendations for establishments known for their long lines. And those who like to eat a variety of dishes will not be guided to places where the menu never changes.
Élise Tastet hopes that her application could one day even guide users through a gourmet journey.
“From July, hotel users will be able to consult an interactive map in the colors of the Ritz, adapted to their specific needs: 250 addresses chosen, the Ritz restaurants highlighted first, filter “recommended by the concierges of the Ritz”…
“I want this tool to become so practical for users that they can no longer do without it when traveling. »
