An Evaluation of Chefs’ Views on the Culinary Arts and Design Processes

Abstract

Gastronomy and the culinary arts have become an area of intense focus with the increasing popularity of advanced techniques in food design, presentation, and aesthetics as well as food preparation. The meal has become an artistic and aesthetic experiment that appeals to all senses to the extent that the relationship between food, art, and aesthetics has begun to find a place in contemporary art. The goal of this study was to show how Turkish chefs define culinary art and the culinary artist’s qualifications, how they create original ideas that reflect their identities as artists and chefs, and how they evaluate food presentation. The study was based on qualitative research methods and face-to-face interviews with chefs. In this context, a semi-structured interview form was used in interviews with seven chefs. A descriptive analysis method was used to interpret the data from the interviews. The results of the study revealed how the chefs defined the culinary art and the culinary artist. They also revealed that the chefs drew inspiration from a variety of sources, forming their own styles based on other chefs’ dishes, traditional Turkish cuisine, nature, technology, artwork, and gothic style. In addition, the chefs used the criteria of flavor, hygiene, compliance with the category or concept, originality, consistency, material selection, technique, use of sauce, and color harmony to judge food competitions. In conclusion, the results revealed that most of the chefs used a variety of visual design elements and principles. It can be seen from the results that aesthetic considerations are an important part of the chefs’ work.