Culinary identity of a restaurant

The culinary identity of a restaurant reflects its purpose and pays homage to a particular cuisine, region, or terroir from France or around the world. It is the story that the chef tells to the guests and the experience they offer. A strong restaurant identity, aligned with the customer experience, is one of the keys to the success of an establishment and can be a lever for optimizing the restaurant, its menu, or its products.

What is Culinary Identity?

First, it is necessary to formalize the concept with key terms, explaining concretely how it will be implemented and what actions you will take. For example, if you offer Québécois cuisine, it will be reflected through typical dishes, strong values, local products, and also through visual identity representative of the country/region, notably through the logo.

This approach will result in a specification document outlining the important elements to incorporate into the menu creation and recipe development. Tell a story and take your customers along with you: culinary identity is often inspired by a region, culture, or the personal history of the chef/owner.

Although often associated with commercial dining, the concept of culinary identity also applies to all types of dining:

Hotel and resort dining
On-Board food services
Contract food services

Once defined, the identity should be shared within the teams. This will allow it to shine and reflect at every point of contact with your customers, thereby enhancing the customer experience.

Our best practices

The success of a culinary identity is often closely tied to its relevance to the target clientele and its local environment. Influenced by the gastronomy and culinary philosophy of Chef Alain Ducasse, the DUCASSE Conseil teams apply his vision of fine dining to serve their clients. We adapt this fundamental principle to your restaurant with a 360° approach to ensure true coherence in every link of the chain, with the value of “from fork to fork.” This involves working on aspects such as the list of approved suppliers, menu recipes, plating, interior decoration, tableware, service identity, and all materials reflecting your brand identity.

We will also support you through the development of a moodboard. Visual inspiration boards are a very useful tool in the initial creative process of defining culinary identity. They can help you refine your ideas and provide a coherent structure to your thinking.

The support we offer

DUCASSE Conseil offers tailored support to assist you in developing your restaurant’s culinary identity. Initially, our project team will schedule a date with you and visit your site to understand your environment, local competition, operational constraints, equipment, and supplier list, as well as observe the work of the teams and engage with various managers.

Following this visit, our team will present you with a culinary identity, detailing: the concept, philosophy, customer experience, and positioning. All these elements will be carefully aligned with the environment we have studied. Our consultants and chef consultants will outline the type of food and cuisine that emerge from this identity, as well as the structure of the proposed menu, including examples of dish names and recipes to illustrate the culinary identity and suggested products.

The DUCASSE Conseil teams are very proud to have assisted the 5-star Daios Cove resort in Crete in developing the culinary identity of its Ocean restaurant, centered around a fusion cuisine of Mediterranean countries. Appealing with its lightness and simplicity, this cuisine caters to leisurely dining and evokes a sense of vacation. We incorporated high-end dining codes into the menu structure, while offering dishes meant for sharing in a convivial setting. Additionally, the products were carefully selected to showcase the island’s treasures and the civilizations that have passed through. Now it’s your turn to tell your story—we look forward to working with you to create the new image of your establishment.

Have a project in mind?