Skip to main content
professional chef

professional chef

4 3.4
A trained cook who works in a restaurant or at events
  • noun
  • /prəˈfɛʃənl ʃɛf/
translation icon : chef profesional
  • Professional chefs are like celebrities and rock stars.
  • professional chef and cooks

If that's the case, why set her up in this situation with professional chef in a home getting a private meal cooked?

Examples

  • In 2011, Project Angel Heart's professional chefs whipped up over 427,000 meals for over 1,800 clients, many of whom need specially prepared meals.

    Blog text (4)
  • A lot of professional chefs use citrus in the way that they might use salt.

  • My husband is a professional chef; I'm a former restaurant manager.

    Blog text (21)
  • I know that professional chefs use more salt than most of us would use at home.

    Blog text (14)
  • A larger proportion of professional chefs I know who operate large restaurant kitchens use sea salt.

    Blog text (20)
  • But I've been a professional chef too and know how to streamline stuff if I have to.

    Blog text (21)
  • Ramos is a certified professional chef after studying at Cuyahoga Community College.

  • Nationwide, other professional chefs are teaching cooking skills to the unemployed.

  • Bring your appetite because my dad, a professional chef, will be doing all the cooking.

Synonyms

chef
vsprofessional chef
559 2.3

A professional cook who leads a restaurant or hotel kitchen

focuses on formal training and advanced culinary skills rather than job title
chef by trade
vsprofessional chef
3.5

A person who cooks food for a living, usually in a restaurant

emphasizes formal training and higher level culinary skills and restaurant work

How Skilled

professional chef
4 3.4
chef
559 2.3
cook
356 1.0
kitchen help
1 2.5

Surface Forms

Morphology

professional + chef

The meaning 'a chef who has formal training and advanced skills' is directly and compositionally derived from 'professional' (skilled/qualified) modifying 'chef' (cook). This simple adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English composition, so a B1 learner who knows both words will understand it.

Etymology

The compound noun professional chef joins professional, meaning someone trained and paid for a job, and chef, a French word meaning 'head cook'. Picture a trained head cook in charge of a busy kitchen, and you see why it means 'a trained, skilled cook who works in a restaurant'.