Crossword Genius

Big cheese in cafe hit, surprisingly (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

chieftain

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'big cheese' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?

'in cafe hit surprisingly' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates anagramming the letters (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'in'+'cafe'+'hit'='incafehit'
'incafehit' is an anagram of 'CHIEFTAIN'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for chieftain that I've seen before include "Clan leader" , "Head of tribe" , "Head of a clan" , "Tribal leader" , "Tribe's leader" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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