A chief cook (often shortened to cook) is a senior unlicensed crewmember working in the steward's department of a merchant ship.
The chief cook directs and participates in the preparation and serving of meals; determines timing and sequence of operations required to meet serving times; inspects galley and equipment for cleanliness and proper storage and preparation of food. The cook may plan or assist in planning meals and taking inventory of stores and equipment.
A chief cook's duties may overlap with those of the steward's assistant, the chief steward, and other steward's department crewmembers.
In the United States Merchant Marine, in order to be occupied as a chief cook a person has to have a Merchant Mariner's Document issued by the United States Coast Guard. Because of international conventions and agreements, all chief cooks who sail internationally are similarly documented by their respective countries.
Famous quotes containing the words chief and/or cook:
“The chief want, in every State that I have been into, was a high and earnest purpose in its inhabitants. This alone draws out “the great resources” of Nature, and at last taxes her beyond her resources; for man naturally dies out of her.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“From what I have said of the natives of New Holland they may appear to some to be the most wretched people upon earth; but in reality they are far happier than we Europeans, being wholly unacquainted not only with the superfluous, but with the necessary conveniences so much sought after in Europe; they are happy in not knowing the use of them.”
—James, Captain Cook (1728–1779)