Cook welcoming a fight (4)
I believe the answer is:
fray
'fight' is the definition.
(fray is a kind of fight)
'cook welcoming a' is the wordplay.
'cook' becomes 'fry' (I've seen this before).
'welcoming' indicates putting letters inside (in sense of 'inviting in').
'fry' placed around 'a' is 'FRAY'.
(Other definitions for fray that I've seen before include "Donnybrook, free-for-all" , "Battle - loose at the edges!" , "Become stressed" , "Noisy fight" , "Become strained" .)