Standing out in the kitchen: Top chefs’ headgear dates back many centuries
The classic high, white chef’s hat, the toque, may go back as far as the mid-7th century BC in Assyria, according to an article by the Culinary Institute of America in Gastronomica magazine. Cooks in the royal household wore pleated cloth headdresses like the king. Another version of the story, states the article, dates the original toque to the Byzantine Empire, when philosophers and artists fled the barbarians and sought refuge in Greek monasteries, where they became cooks. They began wearing similar headdresses to the Orthodox priests they cooked for.
That pleated headgear evolved into close-fitting caps, beret-style hats, and other floppy caps. The CIA credits Antonin Carême, at the turn of the 19th century, with inserting stiff cardboard into his soft cap to make the tall toques that became the classic style.
French kitchens have long revolved around a rigid hierarchy, says Eve Felder, associate dean for culinary arts at the CIA, adding that a toque’s height would increase with rank. The head chef wore the highest hat of all.
By the 1980s in this country, Felder says chefs began moving into self-expression and branding. She considers restaurateurs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud as two in the forefront who wanted to express their personal style beyond the food they were showcasing. At the institute, she says, students are still expected to wear formal hats and attire. “You don’t get to choose what you are going to wear,’’ she says.
Not yet, at least.
