Chef de Cuisine: At the kitchen apex, the Chef de Cuisine has the culinary vision for the restaurant and creates its menu.

Executive Chef: The Executive Chef runs the kitchen when the Chef de Cuisine is not around and is often employed when a Chef de Cuisine has more than one restaurant. The Executive Chef hires and fires staff, determines costs, revamps the menu, takes care of all administrative tasks, interacts with the dining room managers, and oversees the general well being of the restaurant. In smaller restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine would see to all this, and an Executive Chef would be redundant.

Sous-Chef: This chef is always in the kitchen doing all the hands-on work: creating daily specials, taking inventory, watching over the staff, and expediting.

Expediter: Generally the Sous-Chef, the Expediter serves as the liaison between customers in the dining room and the line cooks. A job more about coordination and timing than cooking, the expediter makes sure food gets to the wait staff in a timely fashion, so that everyone sitting at a particular table is served simultaneously.

Pastry Chef: Like the Sous-Chef, but reigning over the pastry section.

Line Cooks: The people who actually cook the food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (sauté, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). They cook on the Expeditor’s orders. Most cooks work up through the line - working every position--before being promoted to Sous-Chef.

Chef de Garde Manger: The person in the garde manger section--also known as the "cold station"--plates all the dishes that do not require heat, such as salads, terrines, and sometimes desserts, if there is no assigned pastry person on the line.

Apprentice: An entry-level position usually filled by recent culinary-school graduates. Duties include the most basic food preparation, such as chopping, while simultaneously honing knife skills. The bottom of the food chain, so to speak.

Related Resources
Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Foods is terrific for ingredients, techniques, and recipes.

The Japanese Kitchen, by Hiroko Shimbo, is one of the most comprehensive introductions to Japanese food for the Western market.

Chef and Philadelphia-based restaurant owner Susanna Foo has a couple of Chinese-centric cookbooks good for both novices and aficionados alike.

If you’re looking for a crash course on the fundamentals of Thai cooking, including an overview of Thailand’s history, society and culture, pick up David Thompson's Thai Food.

Next: Behind the Scenes