The aim of this qualitative study is to develop a framework of culinary - specific competencies for sustainable professional development towards contemporary gastronomic tourism in Malaysian context . In specific, the study outlines an effective approach in the development of competency framework for culinary professionals in Malaysian hotels sector. In the qualitative stage, interviews were conducted among culinary educators and high performers’ chefs in Malaysian culinary industry. The qualitative study successfully identified 14 indicators of important competencies . Subsequently , the study develops a competency framework of the technical (culinary - specific) competencies based on the data gathered from the interviews . The outcome of the study would be an opportunity for the human resource management in developing comprehensive training and development programs for the workforce targeted to specific areas of employees’ competencies
