Cook (domestic worker)

A cook or private chef is a household staff member responsible for food preparation. The term can refer to the head of kitchen staff in a great house or to the cook-housekeeper, a far less prestigious position involving more physical labour.

The cook in an English great house was traditionally female; today's residences may employ a head cook or chef who may be of either gender.

The cook is responsible for the preparation of daily meals and menus, as well as menus for parties and other special occasions. The cook is also responsible for the ordering of food, the maintenance of the kitchen and for keeping accounts with local merchants. The holder of the position reports directly to the lady of the house or sometimes to the housekeeper.

The cook supervises all kitchen staff. In large households, especially at a noble or royal court, this comprises an elaborate hierarchy, at the bottom of which come the kitchen boys (who, despite the name, were not always minors), in the largest households even further subdivided, perhaps the lowliest position being that of spitboy or turnbrooch, who had to remain close to the hot fire to turn the roasting meat; there were six at Hampton Court palace in Henry VIII's reign.

Domestic worker

A domestic helper is a person who works within the employer's household. Domestic helpers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to housekeeping, including cleaning and household maintenance. Other responsibilities may include cooking, laundry and ironing, shopping for food and undertaking other household errands. Such work has always needed to be done but before the Industrial Revolution and the advent of labour saving devices, it was physically much harder.

Some domestic helpers live within their employer's household. In some cases, the contribution and skill of servants whose work encompassed complex management tasks in large households have been highly valued. However, for the most part, domestic work, while necessary, is demanding and undervalued. Although legislation protecting domestic workers is in place in many countries, it is often not extensively enforced. In many jurisdictions, domestic work is poorly regulated and domestic workers are subject to serious abuses, including slavery.

Cook

Cook may refer to:

Place name

Australia

New Zealand

United Kingdom

United States

Cook (surname)

Cook is a family name of English origin. There are several figures named Cook:

A

B

Cook (crater)

Cook is a lunar crater that lies in the western part of the Mare Fecunditatis, just to the southeast of the prominent crater Colombo. To the southwest is Monge.

The interior of this crater has been flooded with lava, leaving only a low rim projecting above the surface. This rim is not quite circular, and has a somewhat hexagonal appearance. The low wall is worn in a few places, particularly along the northeastern rim. There is a tiny craterlet called Cook A on the interior floor near the southeast rim.

Satellite craters

By convention these features are identified on lunar maps by placing the letter on the side of the crater midpoint that is closest to Cook.

References

Workforce

The workforce or labour force (also labor force in the United States) is the labour pool in employment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic region like a city, state, or country. Within a company, its value can be labelled as its "Workforce in Place". The workforce of a country includes both the employed and the unemployed. The labour force participation rate, LFPR (or economic activity rate, EAR), is the ratio between the labour force and the overall size of their cohort (national population of the same age range). The term generally excludes the employers or management, and can imply those involved in manual labour. It may also mean all those who are available for work.

Workers may be unionised, whereby the union conducts negotiations regarding pay and conditions of employment. In the event of industrial unrest, unions provide a co-ordinating role in organising ballots of the workforce, and strike action.

Worker bee

A worker bee is any female (eusocial) bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen, as well. Worker bees occur in many bee species other than honey bees, but this is by far the most familiar colloquial use of the term.

Workers gather pollen into the pollen baskets on their back legs, to carry back to the hive where it is used as food for the developing brood. Pollen carried on their bodies may be carried to another flower where a small portion can rub off onto the pistil, resulting in cross pollination. Almost all of civilization's food supply (maize is a noteworthy exception) depends greatly on crop pollination by honey bees, whether directly eaten or used as forage crops for animals that produce milk and meat. Nectar is sucked up through the proboscis, mixed with enzymes in the stomach, and carried back to the hive, where it is stored in wax cells and evaporated into honey.