chef

noun

ˈshef 

plural chefs

1

: a skilled professional cook

a trained chef

specifically : one who is in charge of a professional kitchen

I wrote to the chef of an acclaimed New American restaurant on the Upper East Side about my food experiences. He invited me to spend a few days in the kitchen on a trial basis.

—Adam Shatz

2

: cook

chef intransitive verb

chefdom

ˈshef-dəm 

noun

Synonyms of chef

• cook
• baker

Examples of chef in a Sentence

The hotel's chef trained at the finest culinary institutes in Europe.

He's the head chef at a five-star restaurant.

a celebrity chef with her own TV show

My friend is an excellent chef.

Recent Examples on the Web

Some chefs dedicate themselves to tasting menus of one-bite intricacies, with every microgreen tweezered into place and every sauce drizzled just so; others master the art of deep-frying turkeys. —Literary Hub, 2 Feb. 2026

My siblings are lawyers, a chef, a social worker, a musician, a veteran, a nurse practitioner, and a college professor and author. —John E. Green, Time, 1 Feb. 2026

Michelin Green Star chef, Peeter Pihel, helms the kitchen, crafting nutritious dishes from wild seaweed and fermented forest berries. —Jen Murphy, Outside, 1 Feb. 2026

The owners of Oak Cliff restaurants Xaman Café and Ayahuasca Cantina opened this Dallas Design District restaurant in late 2025, offering a list of seafood dishes made by Dallas chef Chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman. —Sarah Blaskovich, Dallas Morning News, 1 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

French, short for chef de cuisine head of the kitchen

First Known Use

1826, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing chef

• chef de cuisine
• chef d'oeuvre
• chef's kiss
• chef's knife
• chef's salad
• executive chef
• sous chef

Rhymes for chef

• clef
• deaf
• ref

Kids Definition

chef

noun

ˈshef 

1

: a chief cook

2

: cook entry 1