also: くりやびと
Rare, literary, or historical term for a chef or head cook. In modern Japanese, シェフ or 料理長 are far more common.
In old documents, it is recorded that the imperial court's head cook prepared the banquet dishes.
Rare kanji compound; the reading ちゅうじん is the standard Sino-Japanese reading for this spelling.
Rare native Japanese reading; くりやびと is a historical or literary reading of the same kanji.
The kanji 厨 means 'kitchen' and 人 means 'person', so the compound literally means 'kitchen person'. The reading ちゅうじん is Sino-Japanese, while くりやびと is a native Japanese reading. The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word is now rare and largely replaced by modern terms.