The training and creativity of professional chefs: Stoking the imagination in global gastronomic discourse

The sameness of eating out has been criticised in some quarters of food media in recent years. In this paper I demonstrate through the case of three chefs in Hong Kong how this sameness is the product of global gastronomic discourse. I suggest that chefs play a crucial role in providing the content that fuels gastronomic discourses and also in delivering the experiences of the discourse on the plate to diners. The experience of chefs in cuisines such as Thai, Vietnamese and Spanish allows them to prepare dishes that attract plaudits from food media and fuel the imagination of potential diners. This experience includes professional training in a cuisine under a well-known exponent of the cuisine, which allows them to be associated with the image of their mentor. The other route is vocational culinary training, which gives the chefs the ability to create dishes that stoke the imagination of diners.