The Fascinating History of the Chef's Uniform | CIA Culinary School (2024)

It’sall about pride. If you have it in your profession, you will have it in youruniform, no matter what your walk of life. With the chef’s uniform, there ismore at stake than just keeping the uniform clean and white. A dignified lookhelps generate a feeling of professionalism. When you don the toque, jacket,checkered pants, neckerchief, apron, and side towel, you are continuing acenturies-old tradition. It is a standard of dress which evokes an instantsense of recognition, telling both foodservice industry insiders and the publicthat they are in the presence of a skilled practitioner. Each element plays animportant role in keeping workers safe and comfortable in a potentially dangerousenvironment.

At The Culinary Institute of America, our students receive pants and chef’s jackets with their names embroidered on the chest upon entering our degree programs in Culinary Arts or Baking and Pastry Arts. For kitchen classes, the undergraduates also must wear cleaned and polished black leather shoes, white neckerchief, apron, side towel, and toque. Upon graduation, they each receive another jacket with the word “alumnus” or “alumna” embroidered above the college’s logo on the breast pocket.

Thechef’s uniform has evolved over many generations. Four factors contributed tothe evolution of the uniform: A practical need for protection; an aestheticneed to present a clean, professional image; to confer distinction, establishstatus, and denote pride; and finally, the uniform removes the need for beingdifferent by wearing uniquely-styled components. The uniform is a commondenominator, creating a team spirit while encouraging a focus on what we aredoing rather than our appearances. The contemporary uniform reflects both itspractical and utilitarian aspects as well as its mythical and romantictradition.

Inmedieval times, the distinguishing mark of a chef was an apron. Infifteenth-century illustrations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the cookis shown wearing an apron. In Debate between Pride and Lowliness by F.Thynn, written in 1568, a man is described as wearing “a white knittcappe. I judged him a baker by trade.” By the Victorian Era, prints andillustrations portrayed chefs in white clothing, with a white cap resembling anight cap or tam-o-shanter. Thackeray’s 1852 story, A Little Dinner atTimmins’s, describes a chef wearing a crimson velvet waistcoat and “awhite hat worn on one side of his long curling ringlets.”

Thereare many legends as to how the various parts of the uniform — from the toqueto the shoes — became the standard.

The Toque

The chef’s hat, or toque, goes back to ancient times.Thousands of years ago in Assyria, poisoning was a common way for a person torid himself of enemies. Aware of this problem, Assyrian royalty selected theircooks carefully. They chose only their most loyal subjects to be their chefs,sometimes even members of the royal family itself, and made them members of thecourt. Responsible for the kings’ safety, chefs were paid handsomely in moneyand land, to avoid the temptation of being bribed by the kings’ enemies. Theywere entitled to wear a crown of a similar shape to the royal family employingthem, although made of cloth and lacking in jewels. Some believe thecrown-shaped ribs of the royal headdress developed into the pleats of a chef’shat. Legend has it that the approximately 100 pleats on today’s toquesrepresent the number of ways a chef knows how to prepare an egg. That story isattributed at various times to ancient Persia, Rome, or France.

During the zenith of the Greek and Roman Empires, chefspresided over gluttonous feasts and were called before the royal court to beceremoniously “crowned” with a bonnet-style cap studded with laurel leaves.

Another story is that the modern toque is patternedafter the headdress of Greek Orthodox priests. By the end of the sixth centuryA.D., the Byzantine empire was being overtaken by Barbarians. Philosophers andartists were targeted by the invaders. (Cooks were considered on the same levelas philosophers. In fact, the word “epicurean” used to mean foodlover, comes from the Greek philosopher Epicures.) These philosophers, cooks,and other artists fled, taking refuge in Greek monasteries. While in hiding,they dressed as priests. But out of respect to the clergymen, the chefs changedthe color of their hats from black to white.

By the 16th century, the height, shape, and stiffness ofthe hat varied by country. The French had a flattened beret, Italians woretheirs medium height with formal pleats, and the Germans had a softly gatheredstyle.

Two centuries later, French chefs were seen wearing a“casque à méche” or stocking cap, with different colors determiningthe rank. At the same time, Spanish cooks donned white wool berets whileGermans wore pointed Napoleonic hats with a decorative tassel.

In England, the cooks wore black hats. British cuisine— known as Baronial cooking in the middle ages — usually consisted of a hugeroast of beef, lamb, wild boar, or venison cooked on a spit in a hugewood-burning hearth. The chefs had to spend long hours stoking the fires andreaching into the hearth to tend to the meats. As a result, they would get sootand ash on their hats. Black, therefore, was a functional color for thesechefs. Their caps were often pressed flat, enabling them to carry food on theirheads, as the kitchen was usually quite far from the dining area.

Well into the 20th century, English cooks continued towear small black hats resembling a librarian’s skull cap. This type of headgearwas neither cool nor comfortable, and not very practical for regular stovework, and therefore became a symbol of the “master cook” or kitchensupervisor.

During the reign of Napoleon III (1808-1833), bald cookspurportedly were made to wear velour or heavy cloth caps, while those with hairwore linen or netting.

Also in the early 19th century, Chef Boucher, who cookedfor the Prince of Talleyrand, insisted that everyone in his kitchen wear awhite toque for sanitary reasons. It kept hair up and out of the food, whileabsorbing some of the moisture from an overheated brow. And the tower of airinside the chef’s hat kept the head cool in a hot kitchen.

Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), the father of modern cuisine,favored the comfort and imposing appearance of the tall, starched, and pleatedhat, which became known as the white toque or “La Toque Blanche.”Originally the ribs or pleats were stitched into the cloth. Later they werestiffened with starch. The term “toque” stuck, even though it isactually the French word for a soft, brimless, and usually small hat.

“A cuisinier is judged worthy to wear La ToqueBlanche only through his perfect workmanship,” Escoffier once said. Hedeveloped the practice of different toque heights to delineate rank in thekitchen. That way anyone entering the kitchen would know who was in charge, aswell as the status of each person working there.

Marie-Antoine Carême, while chef to Lord Stewart, theEnglish Ambassador to Vienna, is credited with introducing the starched highhat. He tucked a piece of round cardboard inside a flattened, starched toque.This style, illustrated in his 1822 book Le Maître d’Hôtel, quicklycaught on in Vienna and Paris, but apparently remained unfashionable to Britishcooks until this century. His tome is credited with promoting the elementswhich comprise the modern day chef’s uniform.

Alfred Suzanne has a definitive date for the toquebecoming a standard part of the chef’s uniform. The author of La CuisineAnglaise wrote in 1894 that the toque replaced the bonnet or beret-stylehat in kitchens 54 years earlier (in 1840). He was not a proponent of theshape, however, calling it “as ridiculous as uncomfortable.” Suzanneadded, “The toque called ‘Eiffel Tower,’ elongated perpendicularly, is thefavorite headdress of small people who look to increase their size in the eyesof their subordinates. This hat has a vulgar aspect.”

Today’s top chefs wear toques approximately 12 inchestall, while apprentices and amateurs have eight-inch hats. As recently as the1960s, toque manufacturers kept files on each of the chefs for whom they madehats, including height, weight, hat size, and rank in the kitchen. From thisinformation, they could make the perfect toque to order at the chef’s request.

Harold McGee, in The Curious Cook, a book onkitchen science and lore, favors a simple baseball-style cap over the toque forat least one purpose: oil droplets rising from a pan will fall and settle onthe inside of a chef’s glasses, unless the chef is wearing a visored cap.

The Jacket

The double-breasted jacket was portrayed inMarie-Antoine Carême’s 1822 illustration, and was in full vogue by 1878, whenCerubino Angelica of Angelica Uniform Group began manufacturing them. Theadvantage of these unique wide-flapped jackets was that if the front of thejacket became soiled, the flaps could be reversed — with the dirty one hiddenbehind — to create a better appearance. Thus, the chef could wear a cleanjacket for twice as long. In addition, there were two layers of protection fromspills, splashes, heat, and steam.

Since the jacket buttons either way, it is equallyappropriate for men and women. Today, its unisex style reflects the fact thatthe term “chef” does not denote gender.

The jackets were also fitted with longer sleeves thannecessary. This was to protect the arms from burns in case of inadvertentcontact with hot oven doors, and to allow the chef to grab the cuffs in hishand to use as instant oven mitts if he had to touch a hot pan or reach over anopen flame.

The Side Towel

Nowadays, most chefs use side towels to protect theirhands while lifting hot items from the stove or oven. When not using the towel,it is tucked into the string of the apron. The side towel is not meant to beused as a wiping cloth. If, out of habit or instinct, a spill is cleared with aside towel it should be replaced immediately. Once they become even slightlywet, side towels can no longer insulate the hands. Instead, they will conductthe heat, which will move quickly through the moisture. (And if you drop thepot when you burn your hands, you are liable to give yourself or others burnson the legs and feet from the splash.)

The Apron

Aprons are worn over the jacket and midsection toprotect the uniform as well as the chef. With chefs cooking and reaching overlarge open flames, the apron was historically a safety measure. Now it is wornto keep the uniform clean, protecting the jacket and pants from spills, scalds,and stains. From an 1892 London cookery class for apprentices: “Reversingthe apron once is permissible and by adjusting the number of folds (over thewaist string) stains can be hidden.” The instructor, however, warned thechefs-to-be against making the apron “ludicrously short” by foldingit too much.

The Trousers

A chef’s trousers have a small checkered pattern, whichis effective in disguising the inevitable stains which develop while working.In the United States, the pattern is usually a black and white houndstooth,while many chefs in Europe prefer a blue and white pattern.

The Shoes

High-quality, supportive, and protective footwear is anoften overlooked part of the uniform, but also a very important part, a fact towhich anyone who stands on a line all day can attest. Hard leather shoes withslip-resistant soles are recommended, both for protection and support.

Since everybody’s feet and comfort levels are unique,The Culinary Institute of America’s book, The New Professional Chef,recommends taking the time and effort to try on several different types ofshoes to determine which are most suitable. Neglecting your feet is badbusiness, and can result in foot pain, back trouble, and possible permanentdiscomfort. If you develop trouble with your feet, seek professional help,consider orthotics, and carefully heed advice about what shoes and otherdevices may be best for your particular needs.

At the CIA, we also teach our students that sneakers orathletic shoes are never appropriate in the kitchen. While they arecomfortable, they do not provide the necessary protection from dropped sharpobjects or hot liquids.

TheNeckerchief

The neckerchief tied cravate-style currently adds thesame finishing touch to a uniform as a necktie does to a business suit. Originally,when kitchens were unbearably hot, the neckerchief caught and absorbed facialperspiration. It also had a medical purpose, keeping the neck and throat areasprotected from the extreme temperature fluctuations between the stove tops andthe coolers. If the neck got too hot then too cold, the chef could take ill,catching cold, or worse yet, pneumonia.

Although many modern chefs try to spice up theiruniforms as they do their food, with numerous color combinations, the whiteuniform is classic. In any kitchen seen from the dining room, an all-whiteuniform gives an impression of cleanliness and purity, which you want to impartto your customers. Although some chefs prefer not to wear a toque, RogerFessaguet, the former owner of LaCaravelle and president of Vatel Club,puts it best. “Could you think of a policeman without a hat? That is partof the full uniform,” he said. “It’s a sign of respect for thechef.”

Cotton fabrics are still favored over synthetics,because cotton is more comfortable in the heat of a kitchen. The material alsomust be strong enough to withstand frequent laundering.

The laundering of the uniform is the final importantelement. The pants and jacket should be washed at the end of each shift. Apronsand neckerchiefs must be changed during the course of the shift if they becomesoiled. The jacket should be kept as white and sanitary as possible, asclothing can harbor bacteria, molds, parasites, and even viruses which can betransferred to the food.

When you walk into the kitchen with a bright cleanuniform at the beginning of a new day, it is not only a measure of the prideyou have in your appearance, your skills, and your profession, it is also amatter of health for your customers. You are showing that you are a member of ateam, and a practitioner of a noble and ancient craft.

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