Chef Jackets – A Denim Chef Jacket
Whether your forte is haute cuisine or hotcakes, you'll be a fashion plate in your classic chef's jacket and hat (a "toque")! You don't have to be a professional cook to look like one, so simmer down, put the kettle on, and let's examine the ingredients that make up sizzlin' kitchen style.
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The below "recipe" is found in commercial kitchens all over the world, its features the product of practicality.
Recipe for "Dressed Chef":
- Take one pair of loose black and white checked pants
- Layer above pants a crisp double-breasted white jacket (color substitutions allowed)
- Top with a puffy white hat
The chef's jacket is double-breasted so that it can be buttoned in reverse to hide the stains that accumulate throughout the day, and the double layer of cotton insulates the cook from hot splatters and intense heat of the stones. A classic jacket is made with knotted cloth buttons that can withstand daily laundering and bear up against contact with heavy pans and equipment. In the kitchen hierarchy, the head or executive chef wears solid black pants, the working chefs and cooks wear the black checked pants – a pattern which obscures the inevitable stains and splatters. Neckerchiefs are worn for a jaunty, finished look today, but were originally squares of cotton cloth were knotted around the neck to absorb sweat.
The traditional chef's hat is the most familiar of the chef's garb, and its design evolution is popular fodder for debate among historians. The toque is said to date back to the 16 th Century Europe, during a time when artisans, including chefs, were persecuted for their art. To escape, some chefs hid out in the Orthodox church, mixing with the priests, even donning similar clothing, like their tall hats, in an effort to blend. At the time, toques were gray, but a few centuries later were redesigned and ordered to be constructed of white fabric. Different sized hats were to be worn by different levels of cooks – chefs wore the tallest hates and the younger cooks, the shorter cap-like ones. According to some historians, the toque's characteristic folded pleats were originally added to indicate the 100-plus ways in which a chef could cook an egg!
Recent decades have seen the standard white jacket get a little infusion of spice! Bright colors, whimsical patterns and even designer prints have found their way into the kitchen. Nowadays you might see the top chef inspecting the staff dressed in baggy pin stripes and denim jacket.
After tending to the palates of their patrons, creative chefs want to develop their own fashion tastes as well!
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