Take One Entrepreneur:: The Recipe for Success of France’s Great Chefs

The topic of this article is a study of the leadership of a group of organizations considered as exemplary for what they represent: the most outstanding restaurants in France. The aim of the research was to map out the way the most outstanding French chefs de cuisine have created their restaurants (often from nothing), and the leadership roles they play in making it a success. The subject of the study is a small group of restaurants, carefully listed by the main French food guide, (and one that is considered to be the ‘bible ‘ of food), the Guide Rouge Michelin, as being the best restaurants in the world. The propositions made in this article concern the leadership factors that were found to play an important role in the creation of these exemplary organizations. The article describes the two different roles of the leaders (i.e. the chefs), the charismatic and the architectural role, the vision they generate; the goals they set; the strategy they develop; the organizational culture they establish; the executive role constellation they set up; their system of motivation; and the creation of a highly committed workforce that is very flexible in skills and roles, and of such high quality that it creates the most outstanding organizations of its kind in the world. The paper deconstructs how the success of these establishments is influenced by the way these chefs apply and align these two leadership roles; what specific factors each role entails, and how these roles are used by the chefs to achieve their special position in society.