Yes, Chef Vocabulary in Context

"I was assigned the most basic of tasks, just above dishwasher, but from my first shift, working side by side with a professional restaurant staff, I felt the camaraderie and effort I knew on the soccer field." (61)

• a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

• friendship

• warm, joking environment

• the whole body of persons engaged in a business or profession

"As Leah [Chase] always says, "The hood needs good food, too."

And what happened was that her good food and her good intentions

gave her restaurant a clout she never imagined it would ever have."

• a piece of cloth or leather

• a blow especially with the hand

• pull or influence

• a white cloth on a stake or frame used as a target in archery

"Their [his uncle and aunt] shouts and seemingly exasperated murmurs

were the words of two old people who had stood, united, against the harshness

of the cold blue sea for sixty years and made a life together."

• the fact of being annoying

• to make weary, irritated, or bored

• feeling or showing angry irritation

• having or showing strong feelings of irritation or annoyance

Define innate as it is used here: "Knowing how to clean a fish was as innate as knowing how to open a door." (18)

Answer explanation

existing in, belonging to, or determined by factors present in an individual from birth

"She [his grandmother] had these intuitive moves that we teach in chef school." (24)

• readily learned or understood

• possessing or given to intuition or insight

• natural or untaught knoweldge

• a power of perception like but not one of the five senses : a keen intuitive power

"That apartment was my first home in New York, a place where

my Swedish-English patois was the common language." (145)

• the characteristic special language of an occupational or social group

• uneducated or provincial speech

• a dialect other than the standard or literary dialect

• of, relating to, or being a nonstandard language or dialect of a place, region, or country

Define penchant as used in this context:

"His exacting standards, withering sarcasm, and penchant for publicly ridiculing

his staff always had, at their base, a loyalty to upholding quality." (109)

Answer explanation

a strong and continued inclination

"Ashou, at seven, was preternaturally sharp, and when I saw the look on her face when she learned she was staying home, the way rejection hung above her like a cloud, it was all I could do to blink back the tears."

[Context: Chef Marcus is bargaining with his Ethiopian biological father to let Marcus send money for his half-sisters to leave the family farm and go to school.]

• existing outside of nature

• exceeding what is natural or regular

• inexplicable by ordinary means

• wise beyond

  her years

"That my mother was intelligent rings true because I know she had to be shrewd

to save the lives of myself and my sister, which is what she did,

in the most mysterious and miraculous of ways.

• marked by clever discerning awareness and hardheaded acumen

• given to wily and artful ways or dealing

• severe, hard

• sharp, piercing

Define tactile as it is used here:

[Chef Marcus as a young man was assigned to the fish department]

"I understood the difference between herring and mackerel, but now I was looking at exotic stuff like turbot and sole, learning in a tactile way about the different qualities of each species."

Answer explanation

of, relating to, or being the sense of touch