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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Kitchen Brigade & Roles

Head chef

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

/ˌhed ˈʃef/nounCore term

In culinary arts & cooking, head chef means: The person in charge of a kitchen, responsible for the menu, the team, food quality, ordering and costs. Also called chef de cuisine.

In Turkish: mutfak şefi, baş aşçı, şef

How it is used

Inside the kitchen everyone simply calls the head chef Chef. The head chef writes menus, sets standards, hires and trains staff and controls food cost. Hotels and groups also have an executive chef, who manages several kitchens or outlets.

Example sentences

  1. The head chef changes the menu every season.

  2. You'll need the head chef's approval before you change the recipe.

Common collocations

  • head chef position
  • report to the head chef
  • executive chef
  • chef de cuisine
  • chefA trained professional cook, especially one who leads a kitchen or a section of it. In the kitchen, staff also use it as a form of address for their seniors.
  • sous chefThe second in command in a kitchen, who helps the head chef, supervises the cooks and runs the kitchen when the head chef is away.
  • brigade systemThe traditional way of organising a professional kitchen into a clear chain of command and sections, developed by the French chef Auguste Escoffier in the late 19th century.
  • food costThe cost of the ingredients used to make a dish or menu, often shown as a percentage of the selling price.

More terms: Kitchen Brigade & Roles

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