Gonzalez 1

Kevin Gonzalez

M. Rodriguez

English 1302-171

12/10/2023

Cooking as a craft: The Intersection of skill, knowledge, and creativity in the Chef’s Domain

In today’s society, chefs are rarely spoken of when customers talk about the dishes they

eat and give feedback. People do not appreciate the hard work and creativity they risk and

innovate while making the dishes in the kitchen. Chefs are modern-day alchemists, transforming

raw ingredients into great cuisines that tantalize your taste buds and elevate our dining

experiences. Even if we cannot witness the chefs in action behind the scenes, we still need to

ensure they are making every effort to create outstanding meals that effortlessly combine flavors

and cultures. The chef's skill will allow us to learn more about the dish's history and gain an

appreciation for the chef's work behind the scenes. Although customers may not always

recognize the menu items that chefs serve at a restaurant, chefs should still be recognized more

frequently for the creativity with which they prepare the food, the knowledge they have gained

from past experiences to create the best dishes, and the process and training they undergo to

become skilled in the culinary profession.

Chef’s Creativity through the Dishes

To begin with, people do not appreciate or know the demanding work chefs do when

prepping the dishes for the customers. The customers think that they just make the food and sit

in a corner waiting for the next order; they have to prepare the meal and use their creativity and

mind to make the dish as perfect as possible because they do not want to get complaints about

the food being undercooked or not preferred to their liking.

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Creativity can also come as a culturally creative process when serving dishes to

customers and adding culturally significant ingredients. For example, de Cassia Riberio et al.

state,

“In this research, it became clear that the chef creates the menus from their target

audience’s social and cultural characteristics, emphasizing the appreciation of regional cuisine.

The chefs understand that the preparation techniques and cuisine bases are internationalized

elements that must focus the retrieval of regional food culture, prioritizing the ingredients and,

properly, the clients’ affective memory” (268).

In the previous statement, de Cassia Riberio makes a point that the critical thing to

remember is that chefs understand how important it is to match menus to their customers' tastes

and cultural backgrounds. By doing this, they emphasized appreciating local food, realizing that

while cooking methods and culinary traditions may draw inspiration from around the world, their

ultimate goal should be to restore and maintain local culinary traditions. Furthermore, the chefs

know people's emotional connections to particular foods and flavors by discussing prioritizing

ingredients and clients’ affective memories. Thai suggests that creating a successful menu

requires skill and a detailed understanding of the cultural and emotional context in which the

consumer will enjoy the food.

Furthermore, chefs can use their creativity as a scientific perspective that can blow

people's minds and find a different perspective. A chef can use other ways to make dishes that

can be very surprising in their creativity and taste. For example, Arboleya et al. states,

“Nouvelle Cuisine represents a style of cooking that breaks down food and flavors and

puts them back together again in surprising new forms, with a focus on temperature, texture,

and physical structure. Top level cooks are continuously looking for innovation to make delicious

and stimulating dishes where generation of new ideas is always needed. For instance, new

textures or texture combinations add excitement and generate interest, and thus become a

powerful tool for creating new food opportunities” (Arboleya et al. 261).
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According to the statement, to create excitement and curiosity, chefs experiment with

new ideas, textures, and combinations in a way similar to scientific creativity. The general view

is that chefs should be acknowledged by consumers for their scientific creativity in the dishes

they create–especially those at the industry's highest levels.

Additionally, chiefs have entered restaurants entirely founded on scientific innovation,

demonstrating to consumers that these chefs have undergone extensive training and can

produce the most incredible dishes when working behind the kitchen. Humphries states,

“As well as the growing number of scientists interested in studying cooking, many

famous chefs have embraced a scientific approach to creating new dishes. Restaurants such as

the recently closed elBulli in Roses, Spain, The Fat Duck in Bray, UK, Alinea in Chicago, Illinois,

and Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, have made their reputations through their development

kitchens. Chefs at these establishments have experimented with new methods to create some

surprising dishes – and have sometimes joined scientists as co-authors in published research”

(Humphries S10).

Humphries's statement shows that many different locations around the world can use

scientific creativity that can show consumers that they are prepared to use many different kinds

of inventions that many people might not even have heard of and can surprise consumers that

chefs are an essential part of the dish even if you do not see them upfront when we are

consuming the dish they serve us with perfection.

As a result, this research has shed light on the various responsibilities of a chef and

eliminated the myth that their role is limited to food preparation. Chefs demonstrate a unique

blend of creativity, technical skill, and cultural sensitivity, from preparing dishes to considering

cultural nuances in menu creation. The emergence of restaurants where experimentation and

collaboration with scientists in modern society have shown that chefs in particular artistic roles

have become great innovators in the culinary business. This recognition becomes crucial to
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understanding the broad training and variety of creative techniques chefs use, frequently in the

background, to awe and impress consumers.

Chef’s Knowledge and Past Experiences

In addition, consumers in the restaurant need to learn that chefs have to use different

kinds of knowledge and past experiences when making other dishes on the menu and even

have to find a new invention of dishes if the consumer wants something new in their palette of

desires.

A chef’s knowledge can be recognized in dishes by sourcing indigenous ingredients,

offering customers a taste of history, and introducing them to a new native dish or one that

moves them back to their childhood. Pereria et al. states,

“The inheritance of traditional knowledge and its transmission are founding elements of a

local cuisine that Ovidio describes as an extensive assortment of edible leaves, flowers, fruits,

animals, and insects that are being eaten again after years of disregard. Some of these were

already staples of the traditional diet, but current trends are reassessing their nutritional and

social-ecological value. However, the current over-demand for ‘traditional’ indigenous food is

becoming a challenge: facing an audience that increasingly values ‘food from somewhere,’

locally produced foods are now part of a trend and lifestyle that promote exorbitant prices for

these products. The reintroduction of local food products could have potential impacts on the

local environment, and this process could change the roles and distribution of economic benefits

within Zimatlan” (Pereria et al. 5).

This statement aims to draw attention to how important it is for chefs to incorporate

traditional knowledge into their dish creations, as this helps to validate their culinary skills. It also

emphasizes local food and the value of passing down and preserving traditional knowledge. The

statement highlights chefs’ role in reconsidering these traditional ingredients' nutritional and

social-ecological value by describing a wealth of edible elements in modern culinary practices.

Nevertheless, it also highlights the difficulties that chefs encounter as the market for “traditional”
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indigenous cuisine expands, driving up costs and possibly harming the surrounding ecology. A

chef’s efforts to preserve cultural heritage, advance sustainable practices, and strike a careful

balance between tradition and changing culinary trends are all recognized when they

incorporate traditional knowledge into their culinary creations.

Moreover, there is knowledge that chefs want to refrain from contributing to other chefs

when helping each other. Di Stefano et al. highlights,

“Qualitative evidence gathered during the exploratory phase of our research suggests

that chefs expect those with a reputation for culinary skill to follow norms of knowledge use.

Such highly reputed chefs may turn to others for inspiration, but they are expected to reinterpret

and transform whatever they learn” (Di Stefano et al. 1649).

Di Stefano points out that chefs-especially those well-known for their culinary prowess-

should be interpreters and creators of culinary knowledge rather than just followers of

established standards. Chefs have to hide their ideas because it is how well-known chefs have

their restaurants with their dishes that only they know knowledge of and the specific ingredients

and techniques they use that make them so popular in the first place. The focus is chefs’ ability

to change and advance their culinary knowledge. It highlights the dynamic and inventive nature

of their expertise and invites diners to recognize and appreciate talented chefs' unique

contributions. In addition to Di Stefano's statements, Spratt can add,

“Chef Passard is a founder of the farm-to-table movement, and a defining feature of his

plates is the sanctified presence of the totality of a vegetable-adulterated only in the service of

emphasis on its harmonious role in the season’s larger harvest” (Spratt 631).

Spratt talks about Chef Passard and how his knowledge can be private because he has

his design in his dish that only he knows, making his restaurant popular and different from

others.

In conclusion, when dining at a restaurant, people should consider the chefs’ knowledge

and past experiences when looking for a place to eat. Almost every chef has a popular dish at
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their restaurant that only they know of. The different knowledge from indigenous knowledge

helps a chef find the desire to make a culturally appropriate dish that revives it so that people in

the modern world should try it at their restaurant. Even the knowledge that chefs keep private

when trying new spots in every country because every country has a different dish that only the

chefs know of or is famous in the country they are in.

Chef’s Training and Process

Finally, the training that goes into becoming a chef and working in the kitchen can be

lengthy but well worth it because the experience gained from these positions will help the chef in

the future and equip them with the knowledge they need to open well-known and respected

restaurants. The process chefs take to become the best comes with years of training.

Most chefs have one thing in mind when training and the process they go through.

Michelin Star is what most chefs want in their life. Madeira et al. reports,

“Michelin stars are awarded to restaurants based on five criteria: quality of the products,

the mastery of flavour and cooking techniques, the personality of the chef in his cuisine, value

for money and consistency between visits; the Michelin Guide is based on the following core

values: anonymity, independence, expertise, reliability, passion, and quality” (Madeira et al.

258).

I agree with Madeira that chefs should use their training and find a way to get to the top

of their priorities and work hard to try and obtain a Michelin Star to become well-known chefs.

While the Michelin Star is hard to accept, people do not know what it means for chefs who have

given up their lives to train and perfect culinary art to become the best.

Chefs should take the most training possible to become great, not just the basic culinary

training, but training that, when finished, can already set the chef into the role of a star chef with

authority in the real world. Haykir and Caliskan report,

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“However, employees should be informed about empowerment practices. Otherwise,

employees may not realize that they have decision-making authority and may feel a lack of

confidence in running their business(Ro & Chen, 2011)” (Haykir and Caliskan 424).

This statement highlights the importance of educating staff members about a company

or organization's empowerment strategies. It also emphasizes that effective empowerment

requires open communication and transparency to guarantee that workers are granted authority

and are aware of it, which encourages confidence and ownership in their roles.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper shows that chefs should be necessary when eating at a

restaurant. They are the ones who put in their hard work, training, knowledge, and creativity into

the dish that makes people want to come to restaurants that have a very high reputation that

may or may not have a Michelin Star. Reputation is not the only time consumers want to enter a

restaurant, but culturally appropriate and restaurants that use specific seasonal ingredients that

may impact people in a way that can show them the history of the dish and what indigenous

food around the world can taste like when they may live in a country that does not have that

kind of dishes near them. This paper discusses why there must be more research about the

agreement that chefs should be the topic of why restaurants and the menu are the way they are

and how well-known the restaurant is.

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Works Cited

de Cassia Ribeiro, Rita, et al. "Chef's creativity and the modern gastronomy consumption."
Demetra: Food, Nutrition & Health, vol. 11, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 265+. Gale Academic OneFile,
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f1d. Accessed 8 Oct. 2023.

Arboleya, Juan-Carlos, et al. “From the chef’s mind to the dish: How scientific approaches
facilitate the creative process.” Food Biophysics, vol. 3, no. 2, 2008, pp. 261–268,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11483-008-9078-3.

Humphries, Courtney. “Cooking: Delicious science.” Nature, vol. 486, no. 7403, 2012,
https://doi.org/10.1038/486s10a.

Pereira, Laura M., et al. “Chefs as change-makers from the kitchen: Indigenous knowledge and
traditional food as sustainability innovations.” Global Sustainability, vol. 2, 2019,
https://doi.org/10.1017/s2059479819000139.

Di Stefano, Giada, et al. “Kitchen confidential? norms for the use of transferred knowledge in
Gourmet Cuisine.” Strategic Management Journal, vol. 35, no. 11, 2013, pp. 1645–1670,
https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2179.

Spratt, Emily L. “Gastronomic algorithms: Artistic and sensory exploration of Alain Passard’s
Michelin plates in the manner of Giuseppe Arcimboldo with gans.” Leonardo, vol. 54, no. 6,
2021, pp. 631–637, https://doi.org/10.1162/leon_a_02064.

Madeira, Arlindo, et al. “The culinary creative process of Michelin Star Chefs.” Tourism
Recreation Research, vol. 47, no. 3, 2021, pp. 258–276,
https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2021.1958170.

Haykir, Muhammed, and Osman Çalışkan. “Is there a relationship between empowering chefs
and the culinary creativity process?” Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, vol. 21, no.
3, 2021, pp. 404–429, https://doi.org/10.1080/15428052.2021.1955793.