Cooking Light Subscription: Cooking Chef

Cooking Chef

A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people and is a term for professional cooks. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.The word "chef" is borrowed (and shortened) from the French term chef de cuisine (French pronunciation: [ʃɛf.də.kɥi.zin]), the director or head of a kitchen. (The French word comes from Latin caput and is cognate with English "chief".) In English, the title "chef" in the culinary profession originated in the haute cuisine of the 19th century. Today it is often used to refer to any professional cook, regardless of rank, though in most classically defined kitchens, it refers to the head chef; others, in North American parlance, are "cooks".This person is in charge of all things related to the kitchen, which usually includes menu creation, management of kitchen staff, ordering and purchasing of inventory, and plating design. Chef de cuisine is the traditional French term from which the English word chef is derived. Head chef is often used to designate someone with the same duties as an executive chef, but there is usually someone in charge of them, possibly making the larger executive decisions such as direction of menu, final authority in staff management decisions, etc. This is often the case for chefs with several rants.The Sous-Chef de Cuisine (under-chef of the kitchen) is the second in command and direct assistant of the Chef.