Factors Influencing the Creative Process in Culinary Innovations: a Comparison between Starred-Chefs and Chefs in Training

The paper intends to examine factors that mainly influence the creative process of celebrity chefs and culinary students. By using primary data obtained through an ad-hoc survey built by reviewing prominent literature focused on creativity and innovation in the haute cuisine context, we performed a discriminant analysis to compare the two different groups. Findings provide a better understanding of the origins and the main factors that drive creativity in haute cuisine. Outcomes of this study highlight the main differences that separate chefs in training from top chefs in terms of their creativity. Theoretical implications contribute to shed light on how creativity is influenced by both individual features and environmental/social components. Practical implications suggest which set of managerial capabilities chefs in training and, in turn, professional high schools of cooking have to develop in order to stimulate and sustain creativity in their educational programs. The study contributes to the academic debate on creativity and innovation in haute cuisine context, by suggesting key factors that effectively stimulate actions and behaviours leading to a continuous flow of novel and useful ideas.