Haute cuisine and country of origin

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the role of country of origin (COO) for the competitiveness of luxury restaurants. The main goal is to understand how an haute cuisine (HC) chef can develop a personal cooking style and language based on the exploitation of COO in such a highly institutionalized field. Design/methodology/approach: A single case study methodology is applied based on the analysis of the Italian HC chef Niko Romito. Findings: Findings of this paper highlight the existence of pervasive use of strategies based on the search, recombination and codification of procedure that take direct inspiration by national and regional traditional gastronomic resources and recipes. Research limitations/implications: Research implications refer to the interpretation of how a chef can work by formulating and developing competitive strategies through the recombination, reinterpretation and codification of local and typical gastronomic resources and cooking recipes. Practical implications: The paper provides managerial insights into the relative effectiveness to use COO as a strategic resource for HC restaurants. Originality/value: A model is presented and the three gears that form the COO chain of chef Romito are explained. This model will help academics and practitioners to better understand the ways need to be followed to improve firms’ competitiveness fostering COO.