What do you imagine when you think about a chef? Tall white hat, executive chef coats, aprons, right?
Being a chef is no piece of cake these days; it is a long journey of culinary art study and passion for being a chef. A chef’s coat or uniform carries the symbol of art and experience. The chef uniform was designed after keeping many things in mind back in 1822 by Antoine careme.
After ages, the Chef’s uniform undergoes many changes and modernization, but Antoine’s sketch is still similar. You must wonder why executive chef coats are white when they have to deal with oil and curry. Why they wear long hats?
Why wear double-breasted jackets in such hot areas, where they have to be near flames and oven every time? Some people wear colored coats while some wear blanched ones. Below are the answers to your questions; keep up with us.
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Parts Of Chef Coats
There is a particular uniform for every profession, so do chefs. They have a reason for what wear what they wear. Chef coats parts are generally consisting of:
- Toque Blanche (white tall, plated hat)
- Chef jacket (double-breasted)
- Neckerchiefs
- Apron
- The Pants
Let’s highlight the meaning of every aspect of a chef’s uniform.
1. Toque
It is a tall white hat. It was named toque, which means tall, and Blanche, which means white in French. It symbolizes the Chef’s experience; the taller the hat, the more will be the Chef’s experience. Plates on the hat of the Chef symbolize the technique a chef knows to cook. For example, if a chef has 50 plates on his hat, it means he knows 50 different ways to cook pasta.
Besides symbolization, a tall hat makes it easy to find the Chef in a busy kitchen area, between the racks. It was designed basically to keep the Chef’s hair out from the food.
2. Chef jacket
Chefs uniform represents elegance and class. If you are going to a fancy restaurant and paying money for it, you only ask for two things clean and tasty food. Chefs uniform is all about neat and clean reflection of food. Chef jacket has specific features:
- Thick cotton material: The chef coat is mostly made up of thick material to protect the Chef from being heat burned; it makes the Chef stand in front of flame for a more extended period.
- Chef’s jacket color: The white color jacket was designed to absorb less heat, no matter how long the Chef stands in the kitchen. Most of you might wonder what a chef’s jacket color means? The Chef’s jacket usually comes in white color to reflect cleanliness and professionalism. Still, some chef chooses Black color jacket to show experience.
Some restaurants also design various color schemes to make their chefs stand out and distinguish themselves from other restaurants. To promote brand identity, restaurants are developing many different color combinations.
- Long sleeves: The jacket’s sleeves prevent the Chef’s hand from getting burned while dealing with the oven. While at the same time, sleeves can be kept short to let the Chef work efficiently.
- Double-breasted jacket: The double-breasted jacket was designed to make appearances if any customer wants to appreciate the chef recipe. The double-breasted jacket was designed to flip the dirty area. Usually, we can describe the Chef’s jacket button, meaning that lower staff or less experienced Chef wore white colored buttons according to the past times.
The experienced or chief Chef wore black color buttons. Plastic buttons never go for a chef’s coat because they can fall off. Knotted buttons easy to undo in case of a hot oil spill on the coat. Chef’s collar color meaning, Blue-collar color usually represents the people who work on daily wages. At the same time, the white color represents the highly responsible and skilled Chef.
Women chefs prefer to wear jackets that will define their shape.
3. Neckerchief
The Chef’s neckcloth was meant to absorb the Chef’s sweat while working in the kitchen. But nowadays it is used to show elegance.
4. The Apron
Usually, the length of the chef coat is up to the knee. To protect the legs’ area while dealing with hot ovens and carrying hot pots, chefs wear an apron. It also keeps from the sauce spillage and hot curry burns on the leg area. The apron protects the tough staining of the uniform as well.
5. The Pants
It takes a lot of running in the kitchen, so the Chef’s pants are usually made loose and breathable. The Pant of the Chef was designed previously with black and white checks to hide the stains. This pattern was called a houndstooth.
Difference Between Chef And Cook
Who can wear a chef coat? There is a difference between Chef and cook. It takes culinary qualification and degree to be called a chef. You have to be skilled, and an internship is done in a restaurant/hotel. However, if you are trained under a qualified chef in a restaurant, you can also call yourself a chef and take pride in wearing a chef coat.
But if you only work in the home kitchen and do not have any expert cooking training, you are a cook. You can still find a job in a restaurant.
What Chefs Wear Under a Chef Coat?
Chefs personally choose what they want to wear under the chef coat. It depends on the job descriptions; if you are a continuous working chef, you will face much sweating under the coat. Usually, chefs prefer to wear simple T-shirts of cotton material, more breathable and absorb sweat. Many chefs wear undergarments under the Chef’s coat: boxers or fitted underpants for wearing uniform pants.
But some chefs who are on an upper post in big hotels wear Shirts and tie under their coats. They mostly make meetings with clients in offices. They mostly work for management and very little in the kitchen.
Conclusion
It takes a lot of passion and skill to plate delicious food worth thousands. When a chef wears a coat and holds a knife, it is a sign of confidence. An experienced chef took it as a non-professional approach to change the color of a prestigious chef uniform. They still prefer to wear white Chef’s uniform to keep the legacy alive.
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