ANSWERS: 3
  • keeps their hair back.. now its a status symbol
  • Many chefs today wear that hat standing straight up, kinda tubular. But originally it was for bakers and they wore it flattened out with a very wide 'brim' the hat would keep the flour in the air from settling on their shoulders.
  • The height of the hat or toque blanche, used to denote your position in the kitchen, the higher the toque, the superior the rank. But that came later. In the 16th century, many artisans including chefs were often imprisoned, or even executed, because of their freethinking. To escape some chefs sought refuge in the Orthodox Church and hid amongst the priests of the monasteries. There they wore the same clothes as the priests-including their tall hats and long robes. But their clothes were gray and the priests wore black. In the mid 1800's, the uniforms were redesigned by chef Marie-Antoine Carême. He made them white to represent the cleanliness of the kitchen. He also came up with the idea that hat height would represent status in the kitchen, to separate cooks from chefs. His was said to be 18 inches tall. That was also when the folded pleats of a toque were first said to have been added to indicate the more than 100 ways in which a chef can cook an egg.

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