Organising haute-cuisine service processes : a case study

One of the essential aims of service process organisation is to increase the added value for the customer, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and stimulating consumption. In a haute-cuisine context, customers typically have a higher degree of uncertainty as they often lack the experience of receiving and judging quality in a haute-cuisine setting. This article reports on the application of service process organisation in a haute-cuisine restaurant. The case study shows that there is a significant need to reduce back office activities so that interaction with the customer or customer-facing processes can be increased. This can increase the added value for the customer and can result in higher profits for the restaurants as the customer is either willing to pay higher prices or to consume more. Routines should be implemented that align with segmentation and customer data, while undergoing a retraditionalisation of the service through know-how and interaction. Only interaction with, and integration of, the customer adds significant value that can be further expanded by providing an atmosphere where customer and co-customer have the chance to interact

Innovation of extraordinary chefs : development process or systemic phenomenon?

A highly rated current study on culinary innovation was found to be too product- and service-oriented and narrow, more appropriate to describe the culinary craft than the culinary art Creativity seems to be put into a box and is sold as a well-structured task. Creativity, however, is an ill-structured problem solving and a systemic phenomenon. It requires social validation from the gatekeepers of the domain and if accepted changes an existing domain or transforms an existing domain into a new one. These theoretical findings were supported by selected empirical data from 19 phenomenological interviews with extraordinary chefs from the UK, France, Spain, Austria and Germany. It emerged from the interview analysis that culinary innovation is more than just product or service development and that extraordinary chefs use ill-structured problem solving. Finally, it was shown that the field and the domain have significant influence on the individual chef and her/his creations

Molecular gastronomy : basis for a new culinary movement or modern day alchemy?

To explore the phenomenon of molecular gastronomy by conducting empirical research focusing on renowned chefs. Design/methodology/approach - Literature review summarising past culinary innovations then focusing on the origins and evolution of molecular gastronomy, followed by 18 phenomenological interviews with a snowball sample of world class chefs from across Europe. There is far greater confusion about what molecular gastronomy might be than is implied in previous studies. The term has become wrongly used to describe a possible culinary movement mainly as a result of media influence. Leading chefs, whose new restaurant concepts have become associated with it, reject the term. With only 20 years of history molecular gastronomy is still a comparatively new phenomenon, this initial research presents a clear picture of its evolution so far and the increasing confusion the use of the term has created. It's still far too early to decide if these are heralding a new gastronomic movement. Although molecular gastronomy itself may not provide a foundation for a genuine and lasting development of cuisine it is generating fascination with the fundamental science and techniques of cuisine and showy culinary alchemy. As with Nouvelle Cuisine poor quality copycat chefs could bring into disrepute the reputation and practices of those who are at the vanguard culinary and restaurant innovation. Originality/value - First widespread primary study, across five countries, into recognised exceptional chefs' understanding of molecular gastronomy. It clarifies that molecular gastronomy was never intended to be the foundation of a culinary movement and identifies four key elements for the development of lasting cuisine movements and trends

Enhancing intuition : focusing on indirect ways

In this paper we look into the modes for enhancing intuition suggested in the literature. Our starting point is that although the various intuition-enhancing techniques often work, it is rarely clear why. This also makes more systematic development of further techniques more difficult. First we provide a quick overview of the features of intuition followed by reviewing the intuition-enhancement techniques from the literature. We attempt grouping these techniques into coherent categories by speculating (in the style of Gestalt psychology drawing on well-known phenomena, empirical studies as well as lessons from the history of art and science) about why they work and relating them to the features of intuition to help deeper understanding and also to make identifying areas where further techniques would be needed. We do not currently aim for a final model that classifies all the intuition-enhancement techniques, we only want to make the first step on this road. For our exploration we conceptualise intuition only at the level of knowledge, disregarding the bodily, emotional and spiritual levels. We do acknowledge, however, that intuitive knowledge is also often accompanied by somatic effects and affective charge as these may be useful from the viewpoint of the intuition-enhancement techniques

Iterative learning : a way of achieving generalizability in idiographic research?

In this developmental paper we discuss the thesis that iterative learning is a valid way for generalizing qualitative research findings derived from idiographic research. More precisely, we argue that iterative learning can be used for generalizing idiographic-qualitative research findings that were derived from investigating the ‘extraordinary’ instances of the population. We first outline the notions of iterative learning, idiographic research, and the extraordinary. Then, we continue to discuss generalizability in idiographic research. Finally, we make a link to Polanyi’s principle of mutual control and argue that, when linked with iterative learning, idiographic research results can be accepted and become valuable intellectual commodities of the research community. The principle of mutual control is our starting point for further re-search and we welcome any suggestions, comments, and experiences on the effects of mutual control on the iterative learning process

Experience-based innovation : intuitive expertise in creative professions

The paper examines the connection between the concepts of 'experience innovation' and 'creative intuition', arguing that future research on experience innovation cannot neglect the notion of intuition

Bracketing : a phenomenological theory applied through transpersonal reflexivity

Purpose The purpose of this study is to improve our understanding of bracketing, one of the most central philosophical and theoretical constructs of phenomenology, as a theory of mind. Furthermore, we wanted to showcase how this theoretical construct can be implemented as a methodological tool. Design/methodology/approach In this study we have adopted an approach similar to a qualitative meta-synthesis, comparing the emergent patterns of two empirical projects, seeking synergies and contradictions, and looking for additional insights from new emerging patterns. Findings On a philosophical level, we have found that bracketing, as a theoretical construct, is not about the achievement of objectivity, quite to the contrary, it embraces subjectivity and puts it centre-stage. On a theoretical level, we have achieved a better understanding of Husserl’s phenomenology, as a theory of mind. On a methodological level, we have achieved a powerful way of supplementing and/or clarifying research findings, by using a theoretical construct as a methodological tool. Originality/value Our paper contributes to the phenomenology literature at a philosophical, theoretical and methodological level, by offering a better understanding and a novel implementation of one of the central theoretical constructs of phenomenology

Exploring creativity as experienced by world-leading chefs

This paper reports on a qualitative study exploring the phenomenon of creativity as experienced by world-leading chefs in the organizational setting of their creative industry - haute cuisine. By capturing holistically the complexities and interactions of high-level creativity in high-performance settings, we endeavoured to illustrate how world-leading haute cuisine chefs constructed and understood their experience of being creative and what this can tell us about the nature of creativity more generally. The experiences of our sample of chefs indicate that the phenomenon of creativity is an evolutionary process of 'becoming creative'. Insights into the experience of high-level creativity in a deeply creative commercial setting explain how intra-subjective meaning making of what high-level creativity entails impacts directly on creative outcomes and what this means for creative workers' self-concept, and can be generalized to other settings

Supporting the competent practitioner : trans-disciplinary coaching with a knowledge-based expert system

The purpose of this paper is to describe the roles of the coach and the coachee from the perspective of their respective competences and a particular type of the coaching process that we call ‘competent coaching’. We also show how this process can be supported with a knowledge-based expert system (KBS); to illustrate this, we introduce a particular knowledge-based expert system shell, Doctus, that can assist the coaching process. We also offer a set of concepts, organised into a conceptual framework, in order to help both coach and coachee to (re-)shape the coaching process and thus achieve greater contextual sensitivity. Our contribution is a multi-personal account, rooted in some 100 years of combined coaching experience and around four decades of researching and teaching coaching to business school students at undergraduate, MBA and doctoral level, including executive education

Examining academic vs. applied doctorate

The role of formal education in general and of university education in particular is often discussed nowadays. We have engaged in this debate previously, arguing that although it is bound to change, university education is here to stay. We have developed a model of education, in which universities and corporate universities play complementary roles, and the competent practitioner develops going back and forth between the two. Most recently we are looking into further examining how this conception works at the doctoral level. The outcome of the university is a semi-specialised cultivated mind. By semi-specialised we mean that it is not a balanced and comprehensive knowledge, but engineers can still read, know some history, and some of them will appreciate arts while others will play football with their friends. Some are more narrowly focused than others, but all of them will have knowledge limited to the part of their respective disciplines that can be taught and learned. At the university the students acquire the basic concepts of their disciplines, developing these concepts from scratch. These concepts are validated in an intellectual context by the means of thinking. Subsequently the students join various organisations, starting their working lives. At the workplace, and in the corporate universities, the previously acquired concepts are redeveloped, and they are validated in an applied context by the means of practicing. The practitioners then may occasionally go back to the formal education to acquire further concepts, either to cover new developments in their existing fields, or to extend their fields into neighbouring disciplines. Then they go back to the applied context, and so forth. In reality these phases will usually work with some overlap and often in parallel but the model is easier to understand as a back-and-forth process. Currently we are looking into how these principles can work at doctoral level. In this sense the doctoral degree is different from the previous levels of education in being more driven by problem-solving. However, the primary goal of academic doctorate (PhD) is creating new academic knowledge. While developing a solution to a problem is a necessary component, the focus is the solution, it does not matter too much what problem is solved. In contrast, the applied doctorate is focused on the real-life problem, and it is necessary that this problem is resolved, while it is less important whether this solution creates new academic knowledge. Perhaps even more importantly, it does not really matter whether the solution is ‘scientifically’ validated, as long as it works in practice. Therefore currently we are looking into the possibility of creating an applied doctoral degree, outside the remit of the traditional academia, similarly to the relationship of corporate universities to the universities as academic establishments. This topic is both a research topic that we are tacking as academics, but at the same time also a ‘real-life’ project that we are trying to make happen