Kitchen Staff Vocabulary 1

Vocabulary exercise for chefs and kitchen workers — essential cooking terms and culinary vocabulary.

Vocabulary in context

Step into a professional kitchen for the first time and you'll hear a language you didn't know existed. Mise en place, brunoise, deglaze, 86 it — and that's before the head chef has finished their first sentence. Kitchen vocabulary is a mix of culinary French that became English, English that became kitchen shorthand, and safety and hygiene terms that have very specific legal meanings. This exercise covers the vocabulary that new kitchen staff encounter most in their first weeks: the names of cuts, techniques, equipment, and the phrases that keep a professional kitchen running without collisions, burns, or wasted prep. Learn it, and you'll spend less time nodding along and more time actually cooking.

Ready to practice? Let's go!

Fill in each blank with the correct word. If both words can be used, choose the one that sounds more natural in each situation.

1. Please make sure the water is (cooking/boiling) before you throw the pasta in.

2. I cleaned the (counter/desk) ( = the flat area where food is prepared) before I left last night.

3. Could you please (chop up/chop out) three cups of mushrooms?

4. Tell the customer that the food will be (out/outside) in 10 minutes.

5. These knives are not (sharp/spicy) enough.

6. After you make the sauce, make sure to put it in the refrigerator so it doesn't (go bad/do bad)

7. We need to (purchase/access) ( = buy) more celery.

8. The vegetable (broth/liquid) is too salty.

9. Make sure you warm up the milk before adding it to the sauce. Otherwise it will (curdle/cuddle).

10. Make sure to use the timer so that you don't end up (burn/burning) the bread.

11. The next step is to chop the garlic into very thin (parts/slices).

12. Don't forget to add the (garnish/bread). ( = small bit of food used as a decorative element)

13. Please (slice/fry) the bread in half.

14. It (takes/lasts) about 10 minutes to fry these vegetables.

15. This is too (sharp/spicy) ( = hot). We'll have to mix it with a (milder/dull) sauce.

16. Did you (grate/great) the cheese?

17. OK, now (pour/spill) the sauce over the potatoes.

18. Keep (stirring/starring) for about 5 minutes.

19. Don't put that in the (conventional) oven, just (microwave/cook) it. ( = just cook it in a microwave oven)

20. Make sure you measure all the (ingredients/particulars) properly.