Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (drugs) one who prepares the pipes in an opium den.

1910		Spokane Press (WA) 22 Sept. 7/3: You had better lay off that stem, or get a new chef to cook your hop.
1914		Wash. Post 11 Nov. Misc. 3/5: Toledo was known as a ‘right town’ and a good place to hide out in with its numerous ‘scatters’ or dives where ‘hop’ or ‘grease’ was smoked [with] a Chinese ‘chef’ to cook the ‘pills.’.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 139: I went down to Limehouse Causeway, and engaged the services of a high-class chef, to cook the pills.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 117: A few short puffs and the ‘chef’ got ready another pill for someone not adept enough to prepare his own.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 42/2: Chef, n. An expert in the proper burning of the pill in an opium pipe.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 140: I started smoking opium in Miami, Florida, in 1933 [...] It was a whole process. There had to be somebody preparing it, and he was called a chef.
1989		(con. 1920s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 82: I was a chef: I used to know how to make the pills. I’d get twenty-five dollars every time I cheffed for him.

2. (US Und.) one who runs an illicit still.

1928

Phila. Eve. Bulletin 5 Oct. 40/3: Here are a few more terms and definitions from the ‘Racket’ vocabulary: [...] ‘chef,’ one who regulates a still.

3. (US prison) the executioner in charge of the electric chair.

1935

A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks 21/1: Chef, the man who operates the switch in the electrocution room (prison).

4. opium ashes, residue.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

5. one who cooks crack cocaine.

1992		T. Williams Crackhouse 22: Joan has a way with cooking up crack; she’s the undisputed head chef of the house.
2004		T.I. ‘Trap Muzik’ 🎵 I cook it all up by myself / I give my niggas recipes / So they can turn to chef theyself.
2018		Unknown T ‘Mad about Bars’ 🎵 Work that chef like it’s Novikov.

6. a manufacturer of methedrine.

2013		J. Stahl Bad Sex on Speed 48: Hardcore chefs had the pink bunny in sunglasses inked in banging his drum over their junk [...] it drove the methedrinas wild.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 43: ‘He out playin’ chef or gatherin’ pills?’.