The duality of a pastry chef's creative process

A portraiture study

Abstract

This study focuses on elite Malaysian pastry chefs who have participated in the World Pastry Cup. It poses the question, “How do World Pastry Cup chefs experience the creative process?” Specifically, this study explored the rhetoric (identity formation) of pastry chefs during the creative process. Findings show that pastry chefs bounce between two distinct rhetorics during the creative process, ‘the scientist’ and ‘the artist.’ This identity interchange is presented as a ‘duality,’ as one’s way of being revolves around detailed experimentations and rationalism (the scientist), whilst the other around poetry and artistic intent (the artist).