Cook versus chef
Which sentences are correct?
- Any person who prepares food is a cook.
- Any person who prepares food well is a chef.
- Any person who prepares food for a living is a chef.
- A chef must have graduated from culinary school.
- Every trained professional cook is a chef.
- A chef manages a kitchen by definition.
- All cooks are chefs.
- All chefs are cooks.
- There is no overlap between chefs and cooks.
The correct sentences are A, F, and H.
Why?
Each term has a distinct use and meaning. (Thanks, Rachel Ray—you taught us that!)
Any person who prepares food is a cook, whether at home or in a restaurant. Even as professionals, most people who cook for a living are, in fact, cooks.
The term chef specifically means a cook in a position of authority, with formal culinary training and/or significant professional experience.
Don’t call your mom a great “chef” unless she has experience running a professional kitchen—even if she is a fantastic cook.
Conversely, don’t refer to a chef as a “cook.” Chefs work hard to earn their titles. In fact, “Chef,” with a capital “C,” is used as an honorific in professional kitchens to show respect for the head cook.
In English, the term chef is a shortened form of the French term chef de cuisine, which means “chief of the kitchen.” In French, the term chef is used to mean “chief” in general—in which case, you may well want to call your mom “Chef”!
