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pastry cook

pastry cook

1 2.7
A person who makes cakes, pies and other sweet baked foods
  • noun
  • /ˈpeɪstri kʊk/
translation icon : pastelero
  • The whole wash house smells like a pastry cook's shop.

Examples

  • "As the dough told the pastry cook: "'I am all you knead'

  • I was only a pastry cook in the officers' mess.

  • I was a very bad pastry cook.

  • - The pastry cook, you will have to speak to him.

  • She is an excellent pastry cook.

  • "As the dough told the pastry cook: "'I am all you knead'

  • As I come to the pastry cook's, I catch sight of the women behind the counter and can already imagine them laughing among themselves and making fun of the greedy youngster.

    Academic text (1991)
  • We now find an egg and a fish dealer, a grocer, a tea dealer, a confectioner, a pastry cook, a baker, a bacon curer, a watch and clock maker, and a plumber-cum-gas fitter.

    Blog text (27)
  • She is an incredible pastry cook known for her delicate cakes and tarts.

  • After years of training, he finally became a skilled pastry cook at a renowned bakery.

Synonyms

chef
vspastry cook
559 2.3

A professional cook who leads a restaurant or hotel kitchen

is a specialist focused only on pastries and desserts
pâtissier
vspastry cook
8.3

A chef who makes pastries, cakes and other sweet treats

is the same specialist but named differently

How Skilled

pastry cook
1 2.7
kitchen help
1 2.5

Surface Forms

pastry cook singular
pastry cooks plural

Morphology

pastry + cook

The meaning 'a chef who specializes in making pastries and desserts' is directly compositional from 'pastry' (baked goods) + 'cook' (person who prepares food). This noun+noun compound follows a common and transparent formation cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Pastry cook is a name for a chef who makes pastries and desserts. The phrase paints the simple image of a pastry as sweet baked food and a cook as a person who prepares food, so a pastry cook means 'a chef who makes pastries and desserts'.