ABSTRACT
The concept of a university doctorate, as the highest degree that can be awarded, has always been clear. It proclaims that the recipient is in command of a field of study or professional practice and can make a worthwhile contribution to it. She or he is worthy of being listened to as an equal by the appropriate university faculty or professional body. Doctoral degrees are indicators, not of personal or professional superiority, but benchmarks of intellectual achievement that are special and significant. Culinary Arts and Gastronomy is a comparatively new area for advanced university study and as such has yet to develop its own appropriate research methodologies. A doctoral degree certifying attainments of professional capabilities grounded in theoretical understandings is one way toward such development.
