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This study aims to understand the career path to the pinnacle of professional life. What does it take for an entrepreneur to become a global celebrity in one’s profession? The authors explore the career motivation, trajectory and outcomes of a niche population who made it to the top of their careers.

A qualitative method was applied, using publicly available, prerecorded interviews of a documentary series on a unique sample of 30 top global chefs who gain Michelin-stars or equivalent. The authors used a qualitative approach to analyze the data alternating data and theory.

The authors identify a unique pattern, which the authors label as the “two-steps” trajectory, where these successful chefs went through a dual-hurdle process: first, delving into formal training and establishing themselves; then moving to a top chef status through innovation inspired by their history, chance events and treating their work as an artistic oeuvre and an experience.

The authors provide an observed pattern for what is required to be a top global chef.

This study advances career theory and entrepreneurship studies via integrating the two perspectives. The authors offer a theoretical contribution by identifying the relevance and importance of “new careers” for entrepreneurs, recognizing critical success factors and reinstating the balance between the agency of the entrepreneur and their context.

The relationship between the shortage of chefs for the hospitality industry in Ireland and the lack of uptake for chef apprenticeship is an underexplored topic. This study investigates attitudes to chef training and chef apprenticeship among industry representatives and second-level students.

Using a mixed method approach, the qualitative research comprised of in-depth interviews conducted with key experts in the industry and from the educational sector. The quantitative research approach comprised of questionnaires conducted with second-level students.

The research results found that there is a stigma attached to chef apprenticeships, and this is part of the reason that the apprenticeship has low uptake. However, it was also found that working conditions in the industry were a real concern.

This is an exploratory study with a small sample of interviewees and survey respondents. However, it is a first step towards understanding some of the key issues relating to low uptake for chef apprenticeship.

Access for second-level students to information regarding the benefits of a chef apprenticeship is lacking. It is necessary to convince students that an apprenticeship is as beneficial as a degree. Training for career guidance councillors is needed.

There is a dearth of research on the low uptake to chef apprenticeship. Research is recommended into how to re-brand chef apprenticeship.

The purpose of this paper is to explore intrinsic and extrinsic factors impacting the job satisfaction of casino hotel chefs, and whether chefs' background characteristics are associated with their overall and specific facets of job satisfaction.

A total of 152 surveys were analyzed using a randomly selected sample of 25 major casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. The sample selection represented chefs working in various types of foodservice operations within the hotel segments.

Overall, the casino hotel chefs were satisfied with their jobs (M=3.9). Among intrinsic factors, the chefs were most satisfied with the “work itself” and least satisfied with “growth and recognition” they received. Among extrinsic factors, they were most satisfied with “supervision” and least satisfied with “company policy” pertaining to sick leave and paid vacation. Highest job satisfaction levels were found among chefs who worked in the fine dining kitchens and supervised between 21 and 30 employees.

Results reinforce the value of recognition at work and creation of specialized incentive programs. In order to be most effective, these programs should be tailored to chefs working in different kitchen types and with various levels of management and supervisory responsibilities.

Job satisfaction of casino hotel chefs has been minimally studied, yet they have significant roles in successful hotel operations. This study is unique in directing attention to the “back of the house leaders” – hotel chefs, in a top tier gaming and tourism city.

Human capital is the most important determinant of the Hospitality industry’s success. Executive chefs should be skilled in both management and culinary arts, in addition to ensuring the success of the entire hospitality division. The study aims to understand the competencies of executive chefs in international tourist hotels in Taiwan.

Literature review and behavioral event interviews were conducted with ten executive chefs and executive sous chefs. The modified Delphi method verified the results using 15 experts.

A competency framework was created, with four quadrants – managerial, operational, behaviors and skills – to classify executive chefs’ competencies. Each competency was further divided into sub-competencies – culinary research, emotional control, negotiation skills, job guidance and proactive thinking ability – for 25 items. Quadrants I and II are hard competencies that can be improved through education and training, whereas the third and fourth are soft competencies that require more time for development in workers.

The two-step study developed a competency framework with a practical reference value. The study results could be utilized by human resources managers during their companies’ training, recruitment, selection and promotion.

Besides the Delphi method, a deep behavioral event interview that enabled determining critical competencies was also used to collect data. The results obtained could be used to structure schools’ curricula. Collaborations between the hospitality industry and schools could help develop better curricula and training plans to maximize the availability of educational resources.

This study aims to explore how haute cuisine excellence is and can be self-represented on the websites of three-star restaurants and juxtaposed onto the websites of external authoritative food guides.

In total, 26 French Michelin three-star restaurant websites and their reviews in the prominent Michelin and Gault and Millau dining guides were examined. This data was then processed using lexicometric software.

Five semantic universes emerged, showing that restaurants and dining guides do not emphasize the same elements of culinary excellence. While restaurant websites emphasize the charismatic leadership role of the chef through family history, professional recognition and vicarious learning, the two iconic guides are far from rating the criteria they claim to: For the Michelin Guide, criteria other than cuisine appear central. Conversely, Gault and Millau, far from its nouvelle cuisine principles advocating democratization at lower cost, insists on fine products.

It remains essential for restaurants to use a repertoire of cultural components and symbols, capitalize on the charismatic and architectural roles of their chef and showcase fine products that are representative of classical cuisine. Storytelling and dynamic narrative add-ons, regularly updated on large-audience social media, appear central to increasing restaurants’ perceived value, communicating innovation and attesting to their singularity and uniqueness.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study to overlap the lexical perspectives of three-star restaurants and iconic guides’ websites.

Drawing on social anthropology this paper aims to focus on the role of culture in identity formation through an examination of the results of research into the culture of the chef – culture manifest in what has been referred to as the “culinary underbelly”.

In‐depth interviews were conducted with head chefs of Michelin‐starred restaurants and celebrity chefs with the aim of exploring the social and cultural processes underpinning the formation of chef identity.

These illustrate what it feels like to belong on the basis of such signifying structures as language, community, and kinship. Being a chef is more than just a job, it is sacred work involving sacrifice and pain leaving a physical imprint on the individual in the form of burns, cuts and scalds. Such marks are the physical manifestation of chef culture.

The findings are not generalizable to all chefs. Further research should focus on issues of gender and ethnicity, and on chefs working in different types of establishment and at different levels/status to those interviewed here.

The findings and the analysis provide valuable insights into chef identity. This analysis is important because the significance of concepts such as culture and identity for understanding specific job roles is still under explored within a hospitality context. Managers need to be able to understand and work with the cultural dynamics inherent in job roles because these impinge on key issues such as recruitment, retention and team building of all staff, not just chefs.

The purpose of this study is to shed new light on empirical and conceptual aspects related to chefs’ careers and the hospitality sector. The study examines how the future of the chef’s profession is perceived, how future generations of chefs could be developed and the main emerging trends within the chef’s scene.

Semi-structured, face-to-face, online and telephone interviews were conducted with 34 chefs operating in Australia and 35 in Vietnam.

The findings reveal ten dimensions that strongly adhere to knowledge management (KM) and the notions of the knowledge-based view of the firm. In addition, numerous differences in how the two groups perceived aspects of their careers transpire. Based on these findings, a conceptual framework was developed, with important theoretical and practical implications.

The importance of KM through talent development, mentoring, creating a learning environment and enhancing problem-solving skills is highlighted.

While scholarly works emphasise chefs’ value, importance and contributions, little is known about the links between their careers and KM. Furthermore, almost no study has compared chefs across geographic/cultural domains. The study addresses these research gaps and contributes to the conceptual understanding of KM within the chefs’ domain.

In view to the skills gap challenge in the chefs' occupation, the purpose of this study was to identify the required chefs' skills and competencies for successful careers in culinary arts management in the UK context.

A quantitative approach was employed with a survey questionnaire on competencies. Data were collected from different stakeholders with 407 valid responses presenting views on necessary competencies and skills to pursue a career in culinary arts.

This study suggests that professionals in commercial kitchens should demonstrate strong managerial and leadership skills, as well as operational and administrative. Professionalism and democratic management should be exhibited by chefs, who should further develop their emotional intelligence (EI) competency.

Organizations and academic institutions should provide such training to develop managerial and leadership skills that chefs need. Organizations should recruit based on these competencies model. Attention to diversity, equality and different cultures are important. Academic institutions should redesign their curriculum to address the industry's need on chefs' skills and competencies.

This is the first study to investigate chefs' competencies with empirical evidence from professionals, academics and students in the UK context. This study proposes a model with four sets of competencies, namely management, technical, strategic and operational.

Gender, race, and class-based meanings inform longstanding divisions and status hierarchies within the culinary profession, such as those between public and private and amateur and professional cooking. Private and personal chefs’ work in homes disrupts these divisions and hierarchies. Given their precarious position, how do these chefs negotiate their standing within the profession?

This chapter draws on interviews with 41 private/personal chefs. Eight were primarily private household employees, while all others were primarily self-employed.

The chefs negotiated their status by making distinctions between themselves and commercial chefs, along with other private/personal chefs. The chefs both challenge and reinforce the dichotomies and criteria shaping status evaluations within the culinary profession. Similarly, they both contest and reinforce gender, race, and class hierarchies.

The chefs’ conceptual distinctions can potentially (re)produce or challenge material inequalities. Moreover, while the fields of private/personal cheffing create opportunities for more adults to cook for a living, the traditional status hierarchies remain largely the same. It is likely that as long as those hierarchies persist, the chefs’ conceptual distinctions will continue to challenge and reinforce them.

Research on private/personal chefs has been minimal, so this chapter fills this gap. It also adds to scholarship connecting workers’ status struggles and gender, race, and class inequalities. The case of private and personal chefs sheds new light on how gender, race, and class intersect to inform status evaluations within the culinary profession.

The aim of this study is to shed light on the talent management practices in the unique context of seasonal work in professional kitchens. Acknowledging that in the context of seasonal work in the hospitality industry it is rather difficult to rely on mainstream strategic talent management practices (e.g. training and development), the authors draw on resource orchestration, an extension of the resource-based view and propose a conceptual model of talent management tactics that could potentially increase seasonal employees’ likelihood of returning to the same employer.

Given the uniqueness of the context of this study and the dearth of prior relevant research, this study uses a grounded theory approach. Specifically, this study analyses and draws conclusions from 25 interviews with employees in commercial kitchens.

This study develops a “talent orchestration model”, which places emphasis on management of talented employees across three dimensions: structuring, leveraging and developing talent.

Extant literature in human capital management focusses mostly on the development of human capital, but the results place more emphasis on using or leveraging human capital.

This study moves beyond the well-researched context of hotels and focusses on talent management behind closed doors as in the case of kitchen chefs and, drawing on resource orchestration, this study further examines talent management practices with shorter time frame targeted on seasonal employees.