Toques... Whats the story?

[bentherebfor]

A friend asked me the other day, "What is the history behind the toque? I mean, why don't chefs just wear hair nets?"

I was stumped. I mumbled something incoherently about the purpose being to keep the hair out of the food, like a hair net, but I didn't know why the large hat was necessary. Also, I remembered hearing something on Good Eats about each flap of the toque representing a different way to cook an egg.

So my question is this: What is the point of the toque? The History? The tall-tales? I want to know it all....

[FaustianBargain]

A friend asked me the other day, "What is the history behind the toque? I mean, why don't chefs just wear hair nets?"

I was stumped. I mumbled something incoherently about the purpose being to keep the hair out of the food, like a hair net, but I didn't know why the large hat was necessary. Also, I remembered hearing something on Good Eats about each flap of the toque representing a different way to cook an egg.

So my question is this: What is the point of the toque? The History? The tall-tales? I want to know it all....

←

I recall a Careme connection with the toque. Maybe it was the chef's whites that was his creation?

Anyways, here

The most widely circulated legend about the toque appears to be one concerning why Master Chefs wear hats with 100 pleats. Ruth Edwards in her book ‘A Pageant of Hats, Ancient and Modern said "It was regarded as natural that any chef, worthy of the name, could cook an egg at least one hundred ways. The most-renowned chefs often boasted that they could serve their royal masters a different egg dish every day in the year, some of them so cleverly prepared, that aside from being highly palatable they had flavours as widely different as completely diverse kinds of foods. Today, noted chefs are seldom called upon to prove their prowess in this manner.”

Edited March 4, 2005 by FaustianBargain (log)

[TJHarris]

You might look into this:

Toque info

[chefzadi]

http://www.cheftalk.com/content/display.cf...45&type=article

More about toques and Chef's whites. I'm a classicist. But I've never been keen on the toque, sort of feel it's pretentious. But when I teach kids they love it!

[andiesenji]

The toque is one type of chef's hat. But where did the "gross bonnet blanc" come from. The one with the snug wide headband and the poofy top.

I see these in many illustratons from the late 19th and first half of the 20th century more than the pleated toques.

My first teacher in French cooking used the above term and I have often wondered where it originated.

[chefzadi]

I haven't seen those gross bonnet blanc in real life in a long time. They are made from cloth so unless extremely starched, they won't stand straight up like a toque made from paper. I actually prefer gross bonnet blanc to a toque. They seem more jaunty than a the more pompous toque. I'll do some research and get back to the board.

[bentherebfor]

I found some more info here

The traditional chef's hat, or toque blanche, is what is most distinguishing and recognizable of the uniform, and also the component which often causes the most debate. Chefs as far back as the 16th century are said to have worn toques. During that period artisans of all types (including chefs) were often imprisoned, or even executed, because of their freethinking. To alleviate persecution, 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-with the exception of one deviating trait: the chef's clothes were gray and the priest's were black.

It wasn't until the middle 1800's that chef Marie-Antoine Carême redesigned the uniforms. Carême thought the color white more appropriate, that it denoted cleanliness in the kitchen; it was also at this time that he and his staff began to wear double-breasted jackets. Carême also thought that the hats should be different sizes, to distinguish the cooks from the chefs. The chefs wore the tall hats and the younger cooks wore shorter hats, more like a cap. Carême himself supposedly wore a hat that was 18 inches tall! The folded pleats of a toque, which later became an established characteristic of the chef's hat, were first said to have been added to indicate the more than 100 ways in which a chef can cook an egg.

[touaregsand]

More about toques

http://www.younggourmet.com/a/32.html

French cooks of the eighteenth century generally wore the "casque a meche" or stocking cap, the colors of which varied according to rank. Mr. Boucher, chef to the French statesman Talleyrand (l754-l838), is credited with introducing white as the standard color when he insisted for sanitary reasons that his cooks wear white caps. During this period, Spanish cooks wore berets of white wool or ticking; Germans wore pointed Napoleonic hats with a decorative tassel; the British wore starched Scotch caps and black skull caps sometimes referred to as librarians' caps. In addition to stocking caps, French cooks, especially pastry cooks, wore a bank of linen or ticking with a central mound of the same fabric pleated on the edge. By the end of the eighteenth century, it was full, heavily starched and held in the middle with a circular whalebone, producing the effect of a halo. Under Napoleon III (1808-1833), the Greek bonnet ornamented with a tassel was in vogue. Bald cooks purportedly wore caps in velour or heavy cloth wile persons with hair wore them in linen or netting.

The famous chef M. Antonin Careme, whose career spanned the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (l784-l833) is known to have worn the flattened, starched toque with a piece of round cardboard tucked inside. His book La Maitre d'Hotel (1822) has a frontis-piece illustration showing a chef in "costume anciene" wearing a stocking cap while a chef in "costume moderne" sports what may be either a whalebone or cardboard-braced toque.

[MichaelB]

I haven't seen those gross bonnet blanc in real life in a long time. They are made from cloth so unless extremely starched, they won't stand straight up like a toque made from paper. I actually prefer gross bonnet blanc to a toque. They seem more jaunty than a the more pompous toque. I'll do some research and get back to the board.

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The only place I see them is in photos of Helene Darroze. The gross bonnet blanc is her trademark. You never see her without it.

Photo here: Helene Darroze on Relais Chateaux site

[touaregsand]

This chef http://www.chefgui.com/ seems to be wearing a stiffer version of the big bonnet. He's from Provence. I wonder if it's a long ago regional variation?

[Wolfert]

Please somebody help me out here: I always thought the tall hat went back to Hellenic times.

[andiesenji]

Chef Milani,

The first TV chef in Los Angeles (KTLA Channel 5), and one of the founders of the Hollywood Canteen USO, in addition to acting in a few movies, had a TV show from 1948 to the mid 50s, demonstrating things like fish poached in milk, lamb's kidneys, etc. (Those are all I remember after more than half a century.)

When I was out here visiting my dad in 1952 I watched his show every afternoon. He was a great showman.

He wore the large cloth bonnet, with the pouffy top usually pulled over to one side.

I remember that when he would bend forward there was a black and white button or something similar in the center of the top.

[touaregsand]

According to the site I already mentioned upthread http://www.younggourmet.com/a/32.html

One story says the toque originated from the ancient Assyrians (Assyria is or was located in north Mesopotamia and spans four countries: In Syria it extends west to the Euphrates river; in Turkey it extends north to Harran, Edessa, Diyarbakir, and Lake Van; in Iran it extends east to Lake Urmi, and in Iraq it extends to about 100 miles south of Kirkuk.) During 1170 – 612 BC it was common to assassinate leaders using poison, so chefs were chosen carefully and treated well. A chef sometimes held quite a high rank in the King’s Court, which entitled him to wear a "crown" of sorts, in the same shape as the king's, though made out of cloth and without all the jewels. The crown-shaped ribs of the royal headdress became the pleats of the toque, originally sewn, and later stiffened with starch.

"A crown of sorts" implies a certain amount of height.

The earliest mention of a Greek influence is

During the decline of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the sixth century and during the seventh century AD, intellectuals and artists sought sanctuary in monasteries from the invading Northern barbarians. They hid by wearing the orthodox black hat and robes. Many of them were considered “learned” about health and food so they began to work in the church kitchens. Eventually they started wearing white hats instead of the black hats worn by Greek Orthodox priests, and the toque was born.

Even greater height is implied. But it's a LONG time away from Hellenic Greece.

Those two versions of the toque and it's origins are the most consistent ones I'm finding through various sources. I'll keep looking, because now I really want to know if there is a Hellenic link.

[Wolfert]

According to the site I already mentioned upthread [The earliest mention of a Greek influence is

During the decline of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the sixth century and during the seventh century AD, intellectuals and artists sought sanctuary in monasteries from the invading Northern barbarians. They hid by wearing the orthodox black hat and robes. Many of them were considered “learned” about health and food so they began to work in the church kitchens. Eventually they started wearing white hats instead of the black hats worn by Greek Orthodox priests, and the toque was born.

I was way off on my timeline. Thanks for nailing it.

Edited March 4, 2005 by Varmint (log)

[Lone Star]

Are they worn to show a difference in region or of training? Or is it a matter of personal preference.

Back in the day when we still wore caps, the nursing cap showed what school you went to. Each school had its own cap.

[touaregsand]

Are they worn to show a difference in region or of training?  Or is it a matter of personal preference.

Back in the day when we still wore caps, the nursing cap showed what school you went to.  Each school had its own cap.

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Not a difference in region or training. The rigid, white paper toque is pretty much standard. The cloth bonnet type is almost extinct. The Chef (Chief in the kitchen) is the only one who wears a toque and black pants (maybe a message about "who wears the pants in the kitchen?"). Even the Sous Chef traditionally wears the check pants.

I'll have to ask my husband how much it's required in France these days. In the States don't recall seeing it much at all, except for Chef Instructors at professional cooking schools.

[andiesenji]

Here, at the bottom of this page

is a traditional chef's hat made of cloth. The material of the top is indeed pleated to fit the head band.

I have been through several books, looking at photos and drawings and none of the pre-1960 books show the tall narrow toque with the open top as seen in the CIA and Great Chef's programs.

Henri Charpentier wore the bonnet type.

It is an interesting study of historical head gear.

And here is a school named Gross Bonnet

culinary school

and this site from Chef Harvey toque

Edited March 4, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[*Deborah*]

Happy to see that that school is in fact Gros Bonnet, as my understanding of genders, French grammar, etc. was sorely tried by the concept of "gross bonnet blanc"

[ScorchedPalate]

When I was in culinary school in the U.S., we all wore the paper toque as part of our required uniform. When I started, the student toques were half the height of the chef-instructors', but eventually the school changed suppliers and that went out the door.

When I took classes in France, the chef-instructor was the only one in a toque. We students all wore white cloth hats akin to an army hat, like a cloth version of an old short-order cook's hat:

(from the Cordon Bleu website)

Edited March 4, 2005 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[chefzadi]

When I was in culinary school in the U.S., we all wore the paper toque as part of our required uniform. When I started, the student toques were half the height of the chef-instructors', but eventually the school changed suppliers and that went out the door.

When I took classes in France, the chef-instructor was the only one in a toque. We students all wore white cloth hats akin to an army hat, like a cloth version of an old short-order cook's hat:

(from the Cordon Bleu website)

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Which school in the US? The students all wore a chef's toque?

[touaregsand]

grosssss or gros. I glosssss over stuff like this on a conversational board like egullet as I do in real life. Typos occur and not everyone is a native speaker of French or English for that matter here or in real life. I think my "s" key is stuck.

Anyway, back on topic.

Andie-

Paper toques came into use in the 50's if I recall correctly. I do know that prior to the stiff paper toques, some chefs created the stiff height, by...um...stuffing something into a cloth toque. I'll look up the passages later.