Knowledge dynamics as drivers of innovation in Haute Cuisine and culinary services

Abstract

This paper analyses current innovation processes in Haute Cuisine and develops new insights into the nature of Haute Cuisine innovation and its institutional and organisational preconditions. The paper proposes an innovation paradigm that explains the roles of symbolic, synthetic and analytical knowledge during the various phases of innovation and challenges the innovation activity in Haute Cuisine as a linear model. It also explains the continuum between tacit and explicit knowledge throughout the innovation process. Symbolic knowledge has instilled Haute Cuisine and culinary tendencies, is a key element in its marketing and has allowed local cuisine to be branded internationally. The article aims to fill a research gap that has recently arisen on the existing tensions between idea creation and exploitation in Haute Cuisine innovation. The role of science appears as a tool that supports a chef’s creativity but does not substitute or drive it. This paper fulfills an identified need to study the innovation processes of Haute Cuisine to which academia has dedicated scarce attention. The paper analyses a case study, with a strong institutional focus, a complex and relevant example of the innovation tendencies in Haute Cuisine. It presents a rich case that comprises the complete process from the original inspiration to the final commercialisation.

Keywords:

• Haute Cuisine
• innovation
• symbolic knowledge

Jel Code:

• O35

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonimous reviewers of I&I who have contributed to improve the readibility and quality of this mansucript.

Notes

¹ RCA (Research Chefs Association). 2014. Accessed January 6, 2014. http://www.culinology.org/

² Paul Bocuse, Alain Chapel, Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Michel Guérard, Roger Vergé and Raymond Oliver.

³ See Murphy (2015).

⁴ Michelin Organization data for 2015 retrieved by mail.

⁵ ‘Hasta la Cocina’, Club de Gourmets, 409, 14–27.

⁶ TIME Magazine, April 2006.

⁷ Both chefs worked with their brothers, but both were responsible for innovation in their restaurants.

⁸ It was developed by Georges Pralus during the mid-1970s and trialled at the Restaurant Troisgros in Roanne (France).

⁹ See Fernandez (2006).

¹⁰ Culinary Europe: An Exploration of the Current State of Cooking in Europe, Stratford Chefs School, UK, Technology Review 2007. Accessed October 9, 2014. http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/18046/.

¹¹ José Carlos Capel, food critic for Spain’s El País in TIME Magazine Europe, 9/10/2006.168, 16, 36–37.

¹² Accessed February 2, 2010. http://www.simonsays.fr.

¹³ http://www.chefsworld.net/news_details.asp

¹⁴ Apicius, Cuadernos de Gastronomia, 4 May 2005. Barcelona.

¹⁵ ‘Hasta la Cocina’, Club de Gourmets, (2013), 409, 14–27.