Cook 🧑‍🍳

The cook emoji shows a person wearing a white chef's hat (toque) and chef's coat, often with a cheerful or focused expression. The classic chef's uniform is instantly recognizable across cultures and immediately signals food preparation, culinary skill, and kitchen expertise.

This gender-neutral version is used to celebrate cooking, whether sharing a meal someone made, talking about culinary careers, or expressing excitement about cooking classes or food shows. It works for both professional chefs and home cooks—someone might use it when bragging about their lasagna or posting about a cooking session with friends.

The cook emoji has become shorthand in food blogging and recipe sharing communities, appearing alongside dish photos or in captions about meal prep. It's also used to describe someone with strong cooking skills ("she's a real cook") or to react to impressive culinary creations.

Introduced as part of Unicode Emoji 12.1 in 2019, this gender-neutral cook emoji reflects modern inclusivity in professional representation, allowing people to reference culinary work without specifying gender.