Cognitive Models for Gastronomic Creation and Innovation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.28939/iam.debats-en.2021-11Abstract
Based on the reflections of super-chef Ferran Adrià and his team at el Bulli restaurant, this
paper explores how certain creative mechanisms, techniques and procedures surrounding
avant-garde gastronomy can be analysed from an enactivist model of cognition in order to:
(1) understand creativity in the kitchen; (2) characterise culinary innovation processes; (3)
establish whether some of these processes are general enough to be re-used in other fields
and so broaden our theoretical understanding of the processes and mechanisms involved
in creation and innovation. We present those features that are specific to gastronomy as a
creative process to distinguish them from others that are generic enough to form part of a
larger family of creative processes. The paper seeks to present new perspectives on both
subject-specific and generic creation processes in haute cuisine.
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