The art of creating culinary innovations

The life worlds of innovating chefs are identified as important aspects towards a better understanding of culinary innovation. Hence, the concept of personal culinary innovation is proposed as a verifiable way to identify innovators in the field. Current studies, however, interchangeably use the term invention and innovation and fail to address central dimensions such as artistic aspiration, continuous and discontinuous conditions, learning and networking, adoption and diffusion as well as perceived newness and change. As a result, improving the dialogue between chefs and scholars is believed to be the key to better research in the field.