sous-chef

noun

ˈsü-ˌshef 

variants or sous chef

plural sous-chefs or sous chefs

: the top assistant in a professional kitchen

The typical restaurant kitchen is set up so the absence of the head chef is not felt in the dining room. It is the assistant, the sous-chef, who is usually in charge of production, with the head chef the administrator and creative force.

—Florence Fabricant

The relationship between chef and sous-chef can be a particularly intimate one, for instance, and it's nice to have someone with a similar background and world-view when you're going to spend almost every waking hour together.

—Anthony Bourdain

Examples of sous-chef in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Meanwhile, chef Aisha Ibrahim and her wife, sous-chef Samantha Beaird, are departing with plans of opening their own spot in a bigger market. —Tori Latham, Robb Report, 5 Feb. 2025

Andy is portrayed with all-singing, all-dancing verve by the frankly inexhaustible Georgie Buckland (impressively making her West End debut), while Nate, a sous-chef, is played with equal all-singing, all-dancing verve by the frankly scrumptious Rhys Whitfield. —Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 6 Dec. 2024

Breznik’s husband, Matjaž, a reserved and soft-spoken man, is her sous-chef. —Ellen Ruppel Shell, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Nov. 2024

Her background is as an executive chef at Birmingham’s Hippodrome theatre, having previously worked as a sous-chef at Marriott hotels. —Adam Crafton, The Athletic, 4 Aug. 2024

And her Sydney, a sous-chef at one of the most hectic, anxiety-inducing restaurants in Chicago, would know. —Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 27 June 2024

Along with being the namesake, Purdie is the head chef, sous-chef, host, captain, busser, and dishwasher. —Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2024

Dylan Dreyer's three boys make the best little sous-chefs! —Emma Aerin Becker, Peoplemag, 19 July 2024

The project comes attached to her father’s irritatingly handsome sous-chef. —Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, short for sous-chef de cuisine "second in command of the kitchen"; sous "under," preposition and prefix, going back to Old French suz, soz, going back to Latin subtus "in a lower position, underneath, below," derivative of sub "under" with -tus as in intus "inside, within" — more at up entry 1, chief entry 3, cuisine

First Known Use

1892, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for sous-chef

• chef
• clef
• deaf
• ref

Kids Definition

sous–chef

noun

ˈsü-ˌshef

variants or sous chef

: the top assistant in a professional kitchen