The Cultivation of Taste: Chefs and the Organization of Fine Dining

Drawing on a large number of interviews with renowned chefs, diners, and Michelin inspectors, this book provides an unprecedented insight into Michelin-starred restaurants in Britain and Germany. Restaurants are viewed not simply as businesses but as cultural enterprises that shape our taste in food, ambience, and sociality. Christel Lane has been a Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Cambridge and is a Fellow of St. John's College. Christel has been working on fine-dining restaurants in Britain and Germany since 2009. Visiting a large number of Michelin-starred restaurants and their chefs, she has published articles on this topic in the journals Food, Culture and Society, British Journal of Sociology, and Poetics. This work combines her long-standing interest in economic sociology with the sociology of culture. Christel's most recent books are Capitalist Diversity and Diversity within Capitalism (Routledge 2012, edited with Geoffrey Wood); and National Capitalism, Global Production Networks.Fashioning the Value Chain in Britain, the US and Germany (OUP 2009, with Jocelyn Probert). Introduction; 1 The Fine Dining Restaurant Industry in Historical Perspective; 2 The Michelin-Starred Restaurant Sector Today; 3 Vocation or Business? Competing Organizational Logics and Work Orientations of Chefs; 4 Fine-Dining Chefs: Iconic Figures or Work Horses?; 5 Distinctiveness, Homogeneity, and Innovation in Haute Cuisine; 6 Chefs' Culinary Styles; 7 Front-of-House Staff: Hosts, Sales Persons, or Communicators of Expert Knowledge?; 8 Supplier Relations: Quality, Price, and Trust.; 9 Diners: In Search of Gustatory Pleasure or Symbolic Meaning?; 10 Taste Makers: the Attribution of Aesthetic and Economic Value by Gastronomic Critics and Guides; 11 The Transformation of the Fine-Dining Sector