Definition

The head cook who runs a restaurant kitchen with the authority of a drill sergeant and the stress levels of an air traffic controller. Traditionally the person responsible for menu creation, staff management, and throwing the occasional pan when orders back up. In home cooking circles, it's become a pretentious way to say 'person who watches too much Food Network.'

Example Usage

The chef emerged from the kitchen to accept compliments, strategically timing it after the sous chef had handled the dinner rush chaos.

Source: Wiktionary via Free Dictionary API

Related Terms

Beginner

comp

To give something away for free, usually to apologize for mistakes or impress VIPs. Management's favorite way to fix problems that cooks created, using the restaurant's money.

🍳 Food / Culinary
Intermediate

brochette

The fancy French word for 'food on a stick,' specifically small skewers used for grilling meat, fish, or vegetables. Restaurants charge 40% more when they call it brochette instead of kebab. The sophisticated cousin of the backyard barbecue skewer, proving that presentation and French naming can elevate anything.

🍳 Food / Culinary
Advanced

Woodstock Flakes

Hippie slang for nutritional yeast, the savory golden flakes that vegans sprinkle on everything like it's fairy dust. Rebranded to sound more counterculture and less like a vitamin supplement your doctor prescribed. It's essentially the culinary equivalent of tie-dye—beloved by the crunchy granola crowd and mystifying to everyone else.

🍳 Food / Culinary
Beginner

soy

A fermented bean-based sauce that's been the backbone of East Asian cuisine for millennia, adding salty, savory depth to everything it touches. In modern Western culture, it's also shorthand for plant-based protein that makes vegans feel virtuous and confuses middle America. The sauce version (soy sauce/shoyu) is basically liquid umami that makes even cardboard taste good.

🍳 Food / Culinary
Intermediate

caramelise

The magical cooking process where sugar transforms into liquid gold through controlled heat application, creating complex flavors and that coveted golden-brown color. It's the difference between sad boiled onions and restaurant-quality French onion soup. Master this technique and suddenly everyone thinks you went to culinary school.

🍳 Food / Culinary
Intermediate

Roux

A mixture of equal parts fat and flour cooked together as the base for sauces and soups. It's the foundation of Cajun cooking, French cuisine, and your grandmother's gravy that she refuses to share the recipe for even though it's literally just butter and flour.

🍳 Food / Culinary

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