Purpose

This paper aims to draw on the sociocultural dimensions of food luxury consumption as a new theoretical foundation to explore the consumers’ perceptions of ethical food production and consumption practices within luxury gastronomic restaurants.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a contextualized, qualitative exploration of French luxury dining settings among 35 consumers with different profiles, food cultural backgrounds and gastronomic knowledge. Drawing on Thompson’s analysis framework, the authors captured the narratives beyond the stories told by participants that describe their perceptions and the meanings they assign to ethical food practices in Michelin-starred restaurants.

Findings

The results illustrate how consumers with different profiles perceive ethical food practices within luxury restaurants. The authors identified three segments: novice, advanced and confirmed according to participants’ acquaintance with luxury gastronomy codes and values. These three profiles served as a framework to examine consumers’ perceptions of ethical food forms – environmental sustainability, food well-being and cultural heritage – within the luxury dining setting.

Research limitations/implications

The study revealed no one dominant form of ethical food practices as emphasized in prior studies. Rather, there are multiple forms, including functional, hedonic and symbolic values, related to the degree of familiarity and knowledge of consumers in terms of their luxury gastronomic experiences. The findings show that the perception of ethical food practices within luxury restaurants can encompass additional dimensions such as food well-being and cultural preservation and transmission. This information can enrich the restaurant sustainability literature that principally focuses on health, community and the ecological aspects of food ethics in restaurants. Although this study suggests numerous new insights, there are limitations related to focusing on the French food culture. However, these limitations can help us develop other opportunities for future research.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide luxury professionals and marketers with key insights into effective strategies to integrate sustainable practices while enhancing the luxury experience. The findings show that to encourage luxury businesses and restaurants to promote sustainable practices, it is necessary to enhance the functional, social, emotional and cultural dimensions of the perceived benefits of offering sustainable luxury experiences and reducing the constraints related to sustainability.

Social implications

With its focus on the luxury dining settings underpinning the ethical food practices from the perspective of consumers, this research offers novel insights for researchers and luxury professionals interested in ethical and sustainable business practices.

Originality/value

This research suggests a new way to study sustainability and ethical food production and consumption practices in luxury dining settings – namely, as multiple, culturally embedded perceptions related to three main profiles of luxury gastronomy consumers: novice, advanced and confirmed.

中文翻译：

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消费者对奢侈餐饮中的饮食伦理的看法

目的

本文旨在利用食品奢侈品消费的社会文化维度作为新的理论基础，探讨消费者对豪华美食餐厅内道德食品生产和消费实践的看法。

设计/方法/方法

作者对 35 位具有不同特征、饮食文化背景和美食知识的消费者进行了情境化、定性的法国豪华餐饮环境探索。借鉴汤普森的分析框架，作者捕捉了参与者讲述的故事之外的叙述，这些故事描述了他们的看法以及他们赋予米其林星级餐厅的道德食品实践的意义。

发现

结果说明了具有不同特征的消费者如何看待豪华餐厅内的道德食品实践。作者根据参与者对豪华美食规范和价值观的熟悉程度确定了三个部分：新手、高级和确认。这三个概况作为一个框架来检验消费者对豪华餐饮环境中的道德食品形式——环境可持续性、食品健康和文化遗产——的看法。

研究限制/影响

该研究揭示了没有一种主要形式的道德食品实践如先前研究中所强调的那样。相反，有多种形式，包括功能、享乐和象征价值，与消费者对奢华美食体验的熟悉程度和知识程度有关。研究结果表明，豪华餐厅内对道德食品实践的看法可以涵盖其他方面，例如食品健康以及文化保护和传播。这些信息可以丰富餐厅可持续性文献，这些文献主要关注餐厅食品道德的健康、社区和生态方面。尽管这项研究提出了许多新见解，但关注法国饮食文化仍存在局限性。然而，

实际影响

这项研究的结果为奢侈品专业人士和营销人员提供了关键见解，以了解整合可持续实践的有效策略，同时增强奢侈品体验。研究结果表明，为了鼓励奢侈品企业和餐厅推广可持续实践，有必要增强提供可持续奢侈品体验的感知好处的功能、社会、情感和文化维度，并减少与可持续性相关的限制。

社会影响

这项研究从消费者的角度关注支持道德食品实践的豪华餐饮环境，为对道德和可持续商业实践感兴趣的研究人员和奢侈品专业人士提供了新的见解。

原创性/价值

这项研究提出了一种研究豪华餐饮环境中可持续性和合乎道德的食品生产和消费实践的新方法——即，作为与奢侈美食消费者的三个主要特征相关的多种文化嵌入观念：新手、高级和确认。