sous-chef

From French sous-chef. Compare Italian sotto capo, which was calqued into English as underboss. Perhaps there was ultimately an unattested term *subcaput in Late Latin, with a variant *subciput.

sous-chef (plural sous-chefs)

1. (cooking) The chef underneath the head chef in the chef's hierarchy.

• chef
• line cook
• prep cook

• short-order cook
• executive chef
• cook

sous- (“sub-”) +‎ chef (“chief”)

sous-chef m (plural sous-chefs)

1. second-in-command; right-hand-man

• “sous-chef” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).