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I'm looking for a word that essentially means "to cook" but sounds fancy and sophisticated. What synonyms are there?

Edit:

As for context, I'm thinking of a restaurant setting.

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  • 1
    Tangent: The Online Etymology Dictionary has some interesting things to say about the word "cook". Turns out it's not quite as Germanic as I thought, but quite an old word nonetheless. etymonline.com/index.php?term=cook – Jon Purdy Dec 31 '10 at 6:20
  • Reading the title, the word cuisine immediately came to mind. But that's cooking as a noun, not as a verb. – user1635 Dec 31 '10 at 6:38
  • @Rahul: yeah as well as Haute cuisine (French: literally "high cooking") – shinynewbike Dec 31 '10 at 9:32
  • in a general setting, or when referring to a particular type of food being cooked? – Suvrit Dec 31 '10 at 10:13
  • "be slaving away over a hot stove" - not fancy but can get you brownie points from macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/american/… – JoseK Dec 31 '10 at 10:49
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You could use a more general verb like:

  • prepare
  • craft
  • create

And then sprinkle various more flowery adverbs, nouns and adjectives to make it sound more sophisticated. Try not to overdo it.

At Restaurant X, your meal is skillfully prepared from locally-sourced, fresh, organic ingredients.

If you're writing about a specific dish, you may want to use a verb that specifies the method of cooking, like:

  • grill
  • sautée
  • roast
  • sear

etc.

At Restaurant X, our aged prime rib is slow-roasted to perfection.

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  • Sautée sounds like what I want. – Moshe Feb 2 '11 at 2:30
5

Just kidding: "Endow with a pleasant thermo-chemical alteration."

Nouns seems to be aplenty, but somehow not verbs. Perhaps you could concoct a verb out of the following nouns:

  1. Gastronome
  2. Epicure
  3. Gourmet
  4. Gourmand

Other leads might follow by chasing words strongly associated with:

  1. Fix
  2. Prepare
  3. Fabricate
  4. Conjure
  5. Decoct ...

Perhaps, if you could provide more context to your question, someone might be able to offer a more precise and useful answer.

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3

Engaging in the Culinary Arts.

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  • I'm looking for a word. – Moshe Dec 31 '10 at 7:27
3

Concoct (verb)

Definition from Encarta:

  1. mix ingredients to make something new: to create something by mixing or combining various ingredients in a new way, especially in cooking

Examples:

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  • 2
    but concoct often has negative connotations, and certainly does not sound "sophisticated".... – Suvrit Dec 31 '10 at 10:49
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    you think concoct, you think magic potion - at least for me – JoseK Dec 31 '10 at 10:52
  • @JoseK -- I'd say that about conjure; shout-out to fellow mages out there. – BeemerGuy Dec 31 '10 at 17:37
0

Baking and boiling are both decent synonyms.

(Depending on the context, of course.)

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