This grant provides a comprehensive account of the formation, development, and discarding of professional identity. Drawing on unique cultural and creative industries (CCIs) datasets collected from the institutional haute cuisine sector, we have the opportunity to paint a holistic picture of the various challenges. In particular, we will focus on the identity processes that unfold at the intersection of achieving institutional legitimacy and the pursuit of continuous creative disruption. The inductive studies proposed in this proposal examine the entire identity lifecycle of an elite group of highly creative professionals, namely celebrity chefs.