The sous chef or under chef is 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).
