Explicating chefs' creativity in utilising Malaysian local herbs toward the development of modern Malaysian cuisine: A proposition of a conceptual framework for creative culinary process.

Creativity studies have progressed over time to become more accessible and diverse in conceptualising the depth of creativity. Although the concept of creativity has been widely explored in various fields of study, there is still a lack of empirical evidence and suggestion on how the chefs initialised their creative thought process into an organised pattern when creating novel dishes. This paper introduces a new conceptual framework that elucidates chefs' creativity in utilising Malaysian local herbs (MLH) to develop modern Malaysian cuisine (MMC). It attempts to integrate Amabile's theory of creativity within Horng and Hu's model, suggesting that both theory and model can be integrated into a new framework of the chef's creative process of new culinary innovative product development. The development of this creative process framework offers the potential to depict creativity systemically. It implies that creativity can also be implemented into organised thinking, although it is debatably viewed as 'subjectivity' by many scholars. The proposed new framework feasibly fosters creativity in organisations and industrial uses, as creativity is seen as a survival skill-set in today's economy and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]