The publication this week of the Michelin red guide to Great Britain & Ireland was an extra special occasion because of a double anniversary. Not only does 2011 mark the centenary of the British guide itself, but also that of the company’s long-time British headquarters, the Michelin Building in London’s Fulham Road.

In use by the tyre business until the late 1970s, the iconic building — an important precursor of art deco design — was afterwards carefully refurbished by Sir Terence Conran (with financial support from the late Sir Paul Hamlyn) and opened as a restaurant. This is called Bibendum, taking its name from Michelin’s long-time symbol, the roly-poly man made of white tyres. What better place could there be to celebrate the anniversaries.

On Monday night, they were marked by a party featuring cocktails and canapés attended by 120 of Michelin’s current 140 starred chefs. These included both Raymond Blanc of the two-star Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, at Great Milton, and Michael North, of The Nut Tree at Murcott, near Bicester.

Of the best-known celebrity starred chefs — including Heston Blumenthal, Giorgio Locatelli, Gary Rhodes and Michael Caines — only Gordon Ramsay was missing, owing to filming commitments abroad.

A representative of Michelin told me confidentially that it might not have been quite fair to have set Bibendum’s chef Matthew Harris and his team the challenge of cooking an entire meal for so critical an array of guests. (Bibendum itself is not starred, but the guide speaks of the loyal following it has built up over 20 years for its “French food with a British accent”).

There was no such hesitation, however, as far as the press were concerned. We were invited to a slap-up lunch in the restaurant following the launch of the guide. I need hardly tell you I was among the party.

We were treated to a superb meal of grilled scallops with warm potato purée and fresh black truffles, breast of duck with pithiviers savoyarde (a delicious pasty filled with gratin potatoes, cheese and ham) and chocolate marquise with hazelnuts and kumquats.

The wines (French naturally) were Claude Carré champagne, 2009 Côtes-du-Rhône Blanc, Saint Cosme, Southern Rhône, and 2009 L’Ardoise, Anjou Rouge, Comainge des Rochelles, Lebreton, Loire.

With the upstairs restaurant bathed in afternoon sunshine — its white radiance stained, as P.B. Shelley would have put it, by the many-coloured glass of the windows — this was indeed a glittering occasion.

At a press conference earlier, the guide’s long-time editor Derek Bulmer shrugged off the cloak of anonymity that has hitherto clothed him to stand before us and talk food. His willingness to do this, while it was obviously partly on account of the special occasion, probably had more to do with the fact that he retired from his job last September (after completing work on the 2011 guide).

We did not, incidentally, discover the identity of his successor. We did learn, though, that she is a woman — a fact that Bulmer announced with some satisfaction during his answer to a female member of his audience who clearly wanted to mix it with him on the subject of the dominance of males, as she alleged, among Michelin’s inspectorate.

Bulmer told us something of the life led by these shadowy figures. They eat, on average, between 600 and 800 meals a year and stay in about 150 hotels. They cover 25,000 miles on their travels. Each place visited is the subject of a written report.

“It is a very special job for which Michelin requires special people. Pre-eminently, of course, they need a good appetite. They are on the look-out for clean, well-maintained, comfortable premises, a warm welcome, friendly and attentive service, and good food from quality products prepared with skill.

“My principal rule has always been. ‘If I can’t recommend this to a friend, why am I putting it in the guide?’”

Bulmer took up his work, under then editor Derek Brown, in 1977, when Michelin was still in the Fulham Road (now it’s in Stoke-on-Trent). This very roughly was when I took to reviewing restaurants in Oxfordshire. How well I recognised the seventies scene Bulmer described.

“Gastronomically, the seventies were very different from now. You had to drive the length of Britain to find a half-decent restaurant to put in the guide. There were large portions of food that didn’t change, with ingredients from the freezer.

“Then, there were 24 starred restaurants. There are 143 now, more than there have ever been.

“We have seen a remarkable change in recent years, with many menus featuring locally sourced British products. British, French, Italian, Japanese and other styles of cooking all feature in the guide.

“We have come a long way in 30 years. We should hold our heads high because our food compares favourably with any in the world.

“We can take pride in our gastronomic heritage.”