Contemporary dining room professionals: towards a “hip” style of hospitality identity

Abstract

Interest in having an occupation that connects with consumption practices of taste has increased in the contemporary creative economy. In addition, the restaurant scene in Sweden as well as globally has recently been moving towards a casualisation of high-quality restaurants, which presents new questions about how to understand and practise the work in restaurant dining rooms. The study focuses on dining room professionals working in an evolving culinary restaurant scene, with the purpose of investigating them and their search for sense in contemporary restaurant venues. We use identity perspectives and hospitality as concepts to understand how the professionals create meaning in their work through interviews with professionals working in a subset of restaurants in Sweden. With such an emphasis, this study identifies a certain culinary hospitality identity that needs creative spaces, social exchanges and the idea of authentic materiality to make sense of the restaurant work. In contrast to the way dining room work has traditionally been pictured, this article shows that the industry needs to understand hospitality professionals who put their own authenticity in the foreground, which also guides their choices about where to work and how to perform in these contexts. This also helps the industry to become more attractive, as it is in a vulnerable position after the coronavirus pandemic.