line cook

Meaning

1. 1nouncountable

   A restaurant worker who prepares dishes at one station on the kitchen line under a head chef.

   Grammar: A countable noun: she is a line cook; there are four line cooks.

   Patterns

   • a line cook at somewhere

   Maria worked as a line cook at a busy diner for two years.

   The line cook on the grill station flipped dozens of burgers an hour.

   Every line cook has to be ready before the dinner rush.

Word forms

Common combinations

work as a line cook

He worked as a line cook before opening his own café.

hire a line cook

The restaurant is hiring a line cook for evenings.

experienced line cook

An experienced line cook can handle ten orders at once.

grill line cook

The grill line cook watched the steaks closely.

become a line cook

Many chefs began by becoming a line cook.

Synonyms and how they differ

station chef

Station chef sounds more formal and stresses responsibility for one station, while line cook is the everyday kitchen term.

commis

A commis is a junior cook in a French-style kitchen, often still training, so it is more specific.

short-order cook

A short-order cook makes quick simple meals alone at a diner, while a line cook is part of a team.

chef de partie

This is the formal title for the person in charge of a station, and sounds more senior than line cook.

Word family

line noun

the row of cooking stations in a kitchen

cook noun

someone who prepares food

cook verb

to prepare food by heating

cooking noun

the activity of preparing food

Commonly confused: line cook or head chef?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “line cook”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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