The chayote or custard marrow is a Central American food plant. It is a bulbous, pear-shaped gourd which grows on a vine, with pale green, ridged skin and about the size of an avocado. It is a bland vegetable, somewhat like a cucumber in flavour, with a little spice when fresh. It should be treated in the same way as vegetable marrow or aubergine (US: eggplant) and, like them, should be cooked before eating. In Mexico it is often diced or sliced and then steamed or poached, after which it is added to soups or salads, though it may be served as an accompaniment to meat dishes or as a dessert. Leaves and shoots are also edible when young.
Station chef. The station chef may be responsible for a shift or a specific section of the kitchen, such as the pastries, the soups or the fish, in which case he is usually named accordingly. This is the equivalent of the French chef de partie.
Short order chef, responsible for the dishes that need to be produced quickly. They are also called grill or line cooks in the US and are inclined to work in family restaurants, where they produce a wide range of simple dishes at speed, rather than in 'fine-dining' establishments.
"Secondary chef." Sous chef or under chef. This means that they are second in command in the kitchen, so may actually be in quite a powerful position sometimes. In my kitchen, the sous chef chops up the vegetables and washes up as I proceed through the various stages of producing a meal. In practice there isn’t one and it only ever happens when we stay with our friends Michael and Catherine and Michael and I take it in turns to be one another's sous chefs. There is a good article about sous chefs on Eggbeater (see link below).
