Purpose – In cultural industries, the innovation process is increasingly realized by a key inventor which is sustained by a dedicated team (e.g. Cillo and Verona 2008; Glaveanu and Lubart 2014). In fact, the key inventor, who remains central in cultural industries, needs to interact with a team in the cultural products development (Taylor and Greve 2006; Tran 2010). Nevertheless, the characteristics of this particular team remain unclear (Stierand et al. 2014; Tan 2015). Thereby, the present paper aims to understand the composition of a team which has to support key inventors. Design/methodology/approach – The setting of our research is the haute cuisine, which belongs to cultural industries (Ferguson 1998; Messeni Petruzzelli and Savino 2014). In particular, we conducted an in-depth case study of “Dal Pescatore”. This is the Italian restaurant keeping the highest award previewed by Michelin Guide from the longer period of time. The main figures of the restaurant are the chefs: Nadia and Giovanni Santini. The former was the world’s best female chef in 2013, the latter received the “chef de l’avenir” prize in 2012. Furthermore, many chefs learned the basics of the haute cuisine in this kitchen before the opening of their own restaurants. Originality/value – Scholars have hugely emphasized the centrality of key inventors’ creativity for company’s success (e.g. Stierand et al. 2014). However, a growing stream of literature has underlined how teams and their composition affect creativity (Taylor and Greve 2006; Perretti and Negro 2007). Nevertheless, existing research has treated teams and key inventors as alternative solutions (Taylor and Greve 2006). Conversely, recent studies have revealed cases in which key inventors are supported by a team (Cillo and Verona, 2008; Tran 2010). Accordingly, we focused on the composition of this particular team underlining the necessity to combine the experience of aged people with the suggestions of young foreign apprentices. Practical implications – We advance the managerial investigation in cultural industries, which are now attracting an increasing interest by both scholars and policy makers as an important source of economic growth (Chaston and Sadler-Smith 2012). In particular, this research provides useful implications to face the key challenge of innovation development in cultural industries (Taylor and Greve 2006; Cillo and Verona 2008). Hence, this study provides relevant suggestions to the increasing number of cultural firms which adopt an innovation process based on a key inventor sustained by a dedicated team.