Been puzzling me for a while.
In: Other
When I was in culinary school our teachers wore tall chef hats and we (the students) wore small black hats. We were taught that it was a respect thing, and it would signify who the Head Chef in the kitchen was.
I could be wrong but that’s how I’ve always seen it.
My restaurant kept paper hats that were shaped like old chef hats as a choke. We had to wear a hat if you were on line and if you forgot one that day, you get the paper hat
Hey professional cook here, its not a common sight in the west but some old kitchens in france still do it and many who value the tradition behind cooking still do aswell. The hats traditionally have 101 folds to represent the 101 ways to use an egg. The idea that we all still wear them is just something that stuck around, like the idea that all Chefs/Cooks wear white when most of us where black these days.
Its called a toque. And I believe one of the reasons it was so tall was to allow heat to escape from the head.
Also…its ridges signified the amount of ways to cook an egg (IIRC).
There’s a tier of restaurant, above casual but below true fine dining that is more likely to wear those chef hats. Kitchen safety requires hair to be contained, usually a hat is the easiest way to accomplish that. However chef hats aren’t something normal people own, so unless the hats are required/supplied by the employer most staff just wear whatever ball cap they have on hand.
There’s no tangible benefit to chef over any other hat, it’s just about optics. People associate them with fine dining, so the more a restaurant is trying to encourage a specific perception (that maybe their food or atmosphere isn’t meeting) the more likely management is to support the usage of those hats. But it is entirely a branding decision.
I worked in a high end restaurant kitchen for a few years and every kitchen staff was provided one of those hats, but we weren’t required to wear them, unless you were in the dining area, either working a station or just speaking to guests or FOH staff, then you were expected to wear the hat as part of your uniform. Almost everyone ended up wearing them as their main hats anyway, because they were freely available and accomplished everything a kitchen hat is supposed to do.
So all the answers are basically that they dont wear these hats anymore in countries like america.
But what about in France? Are they still rockin them?
It originated in wartime. On the battle field it was agreed that neither side would shoot the chef. Identified by the big hat. Kinda like a red cross on the medic tent.
I wore one when I was the lead cook at a fast food restaurant. Legally, the state required us all to wear a hairnet or other head covering while handling food. Franchisewise, the parent company required us to wear a branded uniform, with a corporate-provided baseball cap or chef’s hat for the head covering. I opted for the chef’s hat, because it was somewhat less warm than the standard-issue baseball cap.
I worked in a large convention center kitchen and the higher up chefs would wear the tall hats. Made it easy to see who knew what was going on in a kitchen with 20 – 150+ chefs
It definitely isn’t a standard. Although, I have studied in two different Canadian culinary schools that made us where them! They are terrible, sticky annoying and cumbersome.
One open style kitchen I worked in made us wear a style of Barret. I actually didn’t mind this to much, it was a classy joint and made us all look pretty dignified!
The one tradition that I can’t stand is calling people “chef”. Most “chefs” I’ve worked with aren’t red seal certified, have any schooling or don’t deserve the respect for that matter. I feel like calling someone “chef” is a high sing of respect that should be earned. Most places use it as a power trip!
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