If you are passionate about cooking and gastronomy, there is a possibility that at some point in your life you have wondered why cooks and chefs wear a kitchen hat. Generally, the answer is hygiene; kitchen hats absorb sweat from the forehead of chefs and cooks and They prevent hair from falling on the dishes that they prepare. But what is the origin of this accessory? Was its usefulness hygienic from the beginning?
The history of the famous chef's hat
Just as for a doctor or a firefighter, the uniform, for cooks and chefs, is part of his identity. Getting into uniform is a daily ritual, in which each person, with their tastes, chooses different textures and colors. The kitchen chef can change the type of jacket, apron, pants or shoes, but what usually marks his identity is his hat.
What is the history of the chef's hat? The story goes that for him Chef's hats were already worn in the XNUMXth century. During this period, numerous cooks were often imprisoned and in some cases executed. The reason? The free thinking of him. Trying to escape persecution, some chefs took refuge in Orthodox churches and were hidden among the priests of the monasteries. To go unnoticed, they wore the same clothes as these, including their tall hats and long suits, except that the clothing of the Chefs was gray and priests black, but the idea of using tall garments as chef's hats was already beginning to germinate.
Antoine Careme and the white hat
The reality is that the invention of chef hat, as we know it today, is attributed to Antoine Careme, a major visionaries of French cuisine from the first third of the XNUMXth century. Antoine was one of the first to worry not only about the culinary creativity, but also by the working conditions. Design uniforms for employees in the kitchen. El White uniform, what today are the pants and the double Filipino, They are thanks to him.
The Frenchman also thought that the hats should have different sizes for distinguish cooks from chefs. As with clothing, the practical and hygienic function of the hat has always been accompanied by a symbolic function, identity and differentiation. In the case of toque exactly the same thing happens.
That tall, hollow white tower, is the metaphor of a crown, whose height would distinguish the Chef from the rest of the "lower category" assistants and cooks. But the design of the hat, with its cylindrical and tall shape also has a practical function. Maintains fresh and conditioned head, as well as protected from the high temperatures of the kitchen. In the past, inside it used to be placed a bag with cold water to keep your head at a suitable temperature. Currently, many Chefs around the world wear the same suit that was used 400 years ago.
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