Kitchen Fashion: What Are You Wearing?

[Pontormo]

I refuse to pay money to watch television, so I don't see many of the food program(me)s that egullet members watch. Nor do I have TiVo for similar reasons. When one of the local PBS stations airs cooking shows, they're clustered in the middle of a Saturday afternoon, so unless I am folding laundry, I rarely get to see those either.

However, this post is not about television shows, it's about you. I'll get there in just a second or two.

But before I do, I'd like to say this topic is inspired by what I have seen when not attending simply to the ingredients being stirred in the shiny pans or the clear instructions and sound advice offered by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. It's what she's wearing. A sturdy apron is tied around her waist, I'm pretty sure, but nothing protects garments above the knot.

Granted she's performing before a camera, so she's dressed up and wearing lipstick. Still, I am amazed. All that Extra Vergine and we don't see her jump back once to avoid flying beads of oil! I feel particularly rueful when I am folding clothes since there is little I own that was not stained while either cooking or eating.

Soooo, I am asking just how much television reflects your reality.

Do you manage to walk in the door after work, peel off your jacket and go immediately to the fridge and the stove without fear of ruining the shirt on your back? What about weekends?

Are you an apron kind of person? If so, how many? What do they look like? Do some of them play different roles? Have a history?

If you believe in the half aprons that our grandmothers wore and are tickled pink by the retro ones on sale at Sur La Table, just HOW do you manage?

Or manage to do without?

Digital camera owners, feel free to post photographs. For the sake of anonymity, feel free to drape yours over chairbacks or dress up your very large dogs.

Edited because who knows if albiston's on the lookout for more spelling errors.

Edited October 20, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[lesfen]

During the week I cook in my P.J.'s. I usually come home from work and bust out the jammie pants right away. We usually have guests of some kind on the weekends so I wear whatever is appropriate for the occasion with the addition of an apron.

I have two. One is very heavy duty, black, and a little cumbersome. The other one is also black but is thinner and lighter with a red Soprano's logo on the front. I would LOVE one of those cutie-petootie retro style aprons tho'. Very cute. I can't have a half one tho'... my boobs seem to attract drips.

[sparrowgrass]

No matter how efficient I think it would be to "just get things started" for dinner, and then go change out of work clothes, it is a mistake. I will inevitably drip or spill or splash something, and the stain will always be front and center.

I do have a couple of aprons, and I do wear them if I absolutely must cook while dressed as a grownup. One with the logo of some awful pre-made burgers (JTM, maybe) that I got for being cook at a company barbecue, and one that says "Vote Doug Henk for County Board".

Doug is my brother, and Maggiethecat's neighbor, and he made an unsuccessful run at the power structure in Dupage Co. Illinois. (Maggie told me that she thought she was the only Democrat in Dupage County, when I told her to vote for Doug.)

[shelora]

When the spirit moves me, I have to obey, no matter what I'm wearing, or not wearing. Heels can be a bit of a challenge, but I like a challenge.

And I am definitely an apron wearer. I love aprons. Big pockets and amply coverage are the norm, but I do have a soft spot for those lovely aprons of the 50's and 60's, especially if they have polka dots.

[Ling]

I have an apron, but I don't really like wearing it. It's a pink Mashimaro apron.

I generally just wear something old and ratty when I'm cooking--I have this navy blue UBC sweatshirt that I got a good 7 years ago (my mom works there, and I ended up attending that university too) that's a favourite. I get it all covered in flour and cake batter all the time.

Last year, I got home from the gym and decided to start frying eggs or something--I was still wearing a sports bra and track pants. Anyway, the oil started splattering and burning my chest and torso--I got like five weird-looking small burns on my body. Always wear proper clothing when frying.

Edited October 20, 2005 by Ling (log)

[bilrus]

I am pretty good about avoiding spots, but I am usually waering basketball shorts and a t shirt when cooking. If I am making something particularly messy or wearing something I don't want to get dirty I wear a Chef's style denim apron from Williams Sonoma. I am a big guy and need a lot of coverage.

[Kent Wang]

I'm usually in my boxers when at home, so that's how I cook.

[lapasterie]

T-shirts and shorts or sweatshirt and pants depending on the season. No matter how I try when I work with chocolate I get it all over me. I would never think of baking in "good clothes". When I taught 8th grade Foods I always wore an apron because I made the kids wear them.

[therese]

I own a couple of aprons that people give me, but rarely wear them.

If I'm in a hurry and it's a weeknight I cook in whatever I wore to work, including high heels. No big issues with spills, but then I'm pretty tidy when I cook.

Weekends I'm more likely to already be dressed casually so no big deal either way.

For entertaining I'll have done most of the prep earlier in the day. No apron over what I'm wearing for guests unless it's something really nice, and then I'm unlikely to be wearing it to entertain at home in any case.

[Carrot Top]

Once upon a time I decided to start a collection. A collection of aprons from the forties and fifties.

Wonderful things, kitschy and colorful, angled and ruffled, stylized and bold.

I had images of wearing them.

I collected about eight of them, all from secondhand stores. Some were pink and silky; some were starchy cotton and bright; some were linen, frighteningly crisp and wrinkled at the very same time.

They lived in a drawer in my kitchen cabinet for some time. Well, really - you know they were just too damn glamorous to take out and WEAR.

One day I took them all out and decorated the kitchen by stapling them at odd angles all over the walls. Pretty cool looking.

And continued to cook, at home, without thinking about my clothes.

It takes less time to apply stain remover to this spot and that spatter while pleasantly remembering the cooking and the meal than it does to balance my bank account. And it is a good way to use up time so that one can avoid those nasty little administrative tasks, too.

Vive la food-spattered clothes!

[Anna N]

I am incredibly old-fashioned - when I gather my clean clothes each morning, one item is my clean apron. If I still had them, I would wear my hospital lab coats but I am sure I would appear much more weird than I do in my apron (affectionately called my "pinny" (from pinafore).

[Octaveman]

Most of the time I'm in shorts and a t-shirt but my wife loves it when I do the nekid chef thing. Take my word for it...don't do stir-fry without proper protective clothing.

[jhlurie]

I know a guy who wears Fish Pants.

[shelora]

I know a guy who wears Fish Pants.

←

And cute fish pants they are. By the way, is that breakfast or lunch?

[hjshorter]

I always have an apron, usually with a towel or two tucked in the back. Sometimes I use the bib and sometimes fold it over at the waist. It's necessary because in addition to spills I always wipe my hands on my clothes.

Mine are all short, but I'd love a long one. Maybe I'll ask Santa for one this year.

[rooftop1000]

Now that I have decided to ...probabley never cook profesionally again I am in the process of throwing out all my nasty stained T-shirts.

The only apron I own I actually use for getting celebrity chef signatures.

Hated wearing front of the house colored aprons...they never came as clean and fresh smelling as whites. I guess I had better save at least one oversized yucky T for cooking at home.

And must learn to keep my grubby hands off my butt...always flour on dark and cinnamon on white.

tracey

[Pam R]

I never use an apron at home.... and I should. I bought a few 'nice' aprons for cooking demos and a few tv appearences that I thought I'd use at home, but never do.

At work, I'm now into 'kitchen scrubs' with a bib apron. They're awesome and I may have get some to keep at home to wear while cooking.

[Pontormo]

P.S. I absolutely all your contributions, especially the fish pants!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Much as I enjoy those fishpants on Fat Guy, I prefer the more anatomically interesting apron here over whatever I am or am not wearing that day ...

Actually manages to take the guests mind off any culinary errors which I have made ... and redirect thier interest elsewhere ...

[culinary bear]

Black chef's trousers, black leather clogs, white jacket, white waist apron, no bloody hat.

[Jinmyo]

Bacon.

[SobaAddict70]

Folks,

I hate to be the one who rains on this parade, but I've just had to remove several posts which delved into off-topic chat. Ideally, we should be talking about we wear whilst cooking or whilst being in the kitchen, not references to human anatomy and other tangents of that nature.

Thanks.

Soba

[liamsaunt]

I wear one of my old husband's t-shirts when cooking. If I wear something nice, it is inevitable that I will spill oil or red wine on it. I wear an apron when I am making something particularly messy. I always wear short sleeves because regular shirts are too long for my arms and the sleeves always unroll and get covered with food. I never wear anything with strings on it after catching a sweatshirt I was wearing on fire after the string dropped into the stove flame.

On Sundays, when I cook with my mother and sister, we all wear iron chef t-shirts, because we think it's funny.

[glossyp]

I almost always wear a bib type apron over t-shirt and jeans or jammie pants. Kitchen towel is stuck in there as well. I'd rather launder aprons and kitchen towels than jeans and t-shirts since we don't have a clothes dryer. A single cooking session would require washing my clothes if I didn't wear an apron - with apron I can get at least a couple of wearings.