Creole cooking absorbs good painter born in Crete (2,5)
I believe the answer is:
el greco
'painter born in crete' is the definition.
(Renaissance artist)
'creole cooking absorbs good' is the wordplay.
'cooking' indicates anagramming the letters (letters cooked up into a new form).
'absorbs' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'good' becomes 'g' (abbreviation).
'creole' is an anagram of 'elreco'.
'elreco' enclosing 'g' is 'EL GRECO'.
(Other definitions for el greco that I've seen before include "Spanish painter, nicknamed for his place of birth" , "Sp. painter, born Domen- ikos Theotokopoulos" , "Greek born Spanish painter" , "He painted" , "Crete-born Sp. painter" .)