Glossary
Fast Food Cook Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential fast food cook terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key fast food cook vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in fast food cook training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Build
- Assembling a sandwich.
- Close
- End-of-night cleaning.
- Cross-contamination
- Spreading germs between foods.
- FIFO
- First in, first out.
- Food handler card
- Basic food safety certificate.
- Fryer basket
- Holds food in oil.
- Hold time
- How long food can wait.
- KDS
- Kitchen display system.
- Prep
- Getting ingredients ready.
- Rush
- Busy period.
- Sanitizer
- Chemical that kills germs.
- Speed of service
- Time to serve.
- Station
- Work area.
- Temperature danger zone
- 41°F to 135°F.
- Waste log
- Record of thrown-out food.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Fast Food Cook practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Fast Food Cook training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.