By DAVID SEGAL

It may sound improbable, given the junk-food associations once attached to the man’s name, but few phrases are more bankable to restaurants around the world than this: “Bill Clinton ate here.” Somehow, the 42nd president of the United States has become an arbiter of international fine dining, conferring a sort of informal Michelin star just by showing up.

Mr. Clinton routinely pops up in guidebooks and newspaper articles about restaurants, invariably with the implication that a beloved gourmand has attached his seal of approval. How exactly did Mr. Clinton become earth’s No. 1 international restaurant maven - More than most celebrities, he seems like a person who appreciates good food, and before he had heart surgery, he was known for his wideranging appetite. He is mostly a vegan these days, and during recent travels on behalf of Democratic candidates his diet has included miso barley soup, black bean burritos and cauliflower and potato curry .

Restaurants worldwide
have reason to relish a
presidential visit.

Overseas, however, he’s been know to stray. Celebrity endorsements provide bragging rights for restaurants and Mr. Clinton’s patronage in the United States has provided boosts for places like Il Mulino in Manhattan and Georgia Brown’s in Washington. But when it comes to Bill Clinton and overseas restaurants, the upside is far greater. Managers and owners from Beijing to Iceland say an appearance by Mr. Clinton can be transformational, launching an obscure restaurant to fame and cementing the reputation of well-known favorites. Best of all, the imprimatur seems to last for years.

“We had 25 people from Sweden in here last night,” says Detlef Obermuller, owner of Gugelhof, a Berlin restaurant that was host to Mr. Clinton and Chancellor Gerhard Schroder in 2000.

“I asked one of them, ‘How do you know about this place?’ And she took out a newspaper clipping out of her pocket. I can’t read Swedish, but she told me it was all about Bill Clinton eating here. And that meal was a decade ago.” Not that Mr. Obermuller has forgotten the details.

He and his staff were given a mere 20-minute heads-up by German security before Mr. Clinton arrived. News of the dinner then spread quickly on radio and television, and by the time dessert was served, a crowd of 2,000 had gathered on the sidewalk to greet the man who had declared “Berlin is free!” in a 1994 speech at the Brandenburg Gate. As Mr. Clinton left, journalists swarmed into Gugelhof, scrounging up quotes and details for articles. Amid the chaos, all the cutlery, plates and glasses on Mr. Clinton’s table disappeared. One of the reporters took the dinner check.

(It included Mr. Clinton’s order of choucroute, an Alsatian dish of sauerkraut, beef, pork and potatoes.) The next day, a German newspaper ran an image of the check on its front page. When Mr. Clinton visits a restaurant, everybody in the room knows it. Douglas Band, an aide who travels with Mr. Clinton, and who fielded questions for this article on his behalf, says his boss introduces himself to every diner, as well as every waiter and every kitchen staff member. He will always pose for photographs and sign guest books.

Someone from his staff will send a thank-you note a few days later. Mr. Clinton never asked to be the foreign restaurant anointer-in-chief, but because he has the job, a glaring irony must be noted: He doesn’t research where he eats. In fact, he rarely chooses the restaurants. “I wish I could tell you there is more of a science to it,” Mr. Band said.

“He’s so busy and has so much to do. It’s not like it’s that important to him.” Typically, Mr. Band said, restaurant ideas come from a member of Mr. Clinton’s advance team, who consults a concierge. Convenience often weighs as heavily as flavor. Other times, the restaurant choice is left to local dignitaries. Good fortune, it seems, plays a large role in the Bill Clinton international restaurant sweepstakes.

Mr. Clinton helped a hot dog stand in Reykjavik called Baejarins Beztu Pylsur achieve worldwide acclaim after he stopped there during a visit to Iceland in 2004. But the ex-president nearly walked right by. “I have this nice older woman who has been working for me for 30 years, and she saw Clinton, and she just shouted at him to stop and try one of our hot dogs,”’ said Gudrun Kristmundottir, the stand’s owner.

“And he did.” The next day, TV reporters and newspapers from all over the world were calling. And in 2006, Baejarins Beztu Pylsur (“city’s best hot dogs” in Icelandic) turned up on a list of the five best European food stalls in The Guardian newspaper in England. Inevitably, Mr. Clinton’s stop was noted.

“It was just unbelievable, the amount of attention,” Ms. Kristmundottir said. “I never understood all the fuss over a single hot dog.”