CEO of the Kitchen...
All chefs are cooks but not all cooks are chefs. Cooks assemble, prepare and cook food. Chefs create dishes and menus that please the palate in the same way that music thrills the ears or visual art excites the eyes.

Historically, chefs trained almost exclusively by apprenticing themselves to an established chef, learning and evolving through years of kitchen experience. This is still the case for many today, but most chefs are now formally trained in one of the many culinary institutes throughout the world.

Early in the 20th century, legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier divided his kitchen into different areas of responsibility and assigned titles to identify those areas. While every kitchen is organized in a slightly different way based on the needs of the establishment it serves, most restaurants still stick to Escoffier’s model.

The position of Executive Chef (Chef de Cuisine) is likened to that of a CEO because the Executive Chef bears all the responsibility for everyone and everything in the kitchen. The second in command - considered an Executive Chef in training - is known as the Sous Chef. Escoffier also created the following titles for other staffers, most of which are self-explanatory.

Station Chefs (Chefs de Partie)
Sauce Cook (Saucier)
Broiler Cook (Rotisseur)
Grill Cook (Grillardin)
Soup Cook (Potager)
Vegetable cook (Entremetier)
Deep Fry Cook (Friturier)
Pastry Chef (Patissier)
Pantry Chef (Garde-Manger) - Prepares cold items
Swing Cook (Tournant) - Rotates throughout kitchen where needed
Assistant Cooks (Commis) - Cooks supervised by Station Chefs
Apprentices (Apprentis) - Training in a kitchen

One thing is certain, the artistry of chefs and cooks continues to evolve and awaken new pleasures of the palate.

The Origin of the Chef's Hat...
The Chef's Hat (Toque) has changed many times over the years, but most stories about its origins are variations of the following.

A prominent origin is that the Chef's Hat originated when a royal cook in the employ of King Henry VIII started going bald. Henry found a hair in his soup, had the cook beheaded, and ordered the next Chef to start wearing a hat (the cook was only too happy to comply).

Some say the Toque can be traced to the seventh century A.D. when Chefs were considered learned men ("Epicurean" derives from the name of the Greek philosopher, Epicurus). Learned men were often persecuted and often took refuge in the local church, donning clergy costumes, including hats, as a disguise. Not wanting to incur the wrath of God, they started wearing white hats instead of the black hats worn by Greek Orthodox priests, and, voila, the Toque was born.

Another prominent story is that it comes from the ancient Assyrians. Since one of the more common ways to "do-in" His Royal Highness was to poison his food, Chefs were chosen carefully, and treated very well, often holding rank in the King's court. Legend has it that the Chef's high position entitled him to wear a "crown" of sorts, in the same shape as the king's, though made out of cloth and without all of those bothersome jewels. The crown-shaped ribs of the royal headdress became the pleats of the Toque, originally sewn and later stiffened with starch.

Speaking of pleats, the most widely circulated legend about the toque appears to be one concerning the number of pleats. It was regarded that any Chef, worthy of the name, could cook an egg at least one hundred ways. Customarily, the Chef's Hat until recently has one hundred pleats said to represent the one hundred ways that a good Chef can cook eggs. The old-time symbol is still around, but most Chef Hats today have 48 pleats. Perhaps the advent of cholesterol screening had a bigger impact than is thought.

The Chef's Uniform...
Today Chefs and Cooks around the world wear the same attire that has traceable origins back to more than 400 years.

The famous Chef M. Antoine Careme, whose career spanned the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sought to modernize the Chef's uniform and thinking that the color white more appropriate as it denoted cleanliness in the kitchen, redesigned the Chef's uniforms.

Also, the famous Chef Auguste Escofflier (1846-1935) favored the Chef's "white" uniform as he thought it promoted professionalism and required his staff to maintain and wear the complete white uniform.

Much of the Chef's uniform has evolved out of necessity. The jacket, for example, is double-breasted so it can easily be reversed to hide stains, and the double layer of cotton is designed to insulate the Chef's bodies against the heat of the stove and splattering of hot liquids. The knot-red cloth buttons are fashioned to withstand frequent washings and abuse from contact with pots, pans and heavy equipment. Though Executive Chefs often wear black pants, Chefs in the United States usually don pants which are patterned with black and white checks while in European countries the checks are generally blue and white. The purpose is the same, a camouflage for spills, splashes and soiling. Today, neckerchiefs are primarily worn for aesthetic purposes, to give uniforms a more finished look, but originally cotton cloths were draped around the Chef's neck to soak up body sweat while working in the inferno-like kitchens of yesteryear.

Although to traditional Chef's uniform is the standard of the culinary profession, since the mid-1980's a legion of Chefs began to wear non-traditional "fun" chefs attire. These "nouveau uniforms" run the gamut from pinstriped baggy pants and denim jackets to full blown wildly patterned outfits with chili peppers, flowers and logos. While some Chefs may nay-say these new style uniforms as non-professional, others retaliate that they are more comfortable and give Chefs an opportunity to express their individuality through their clothes as well as their food.

As with anything, the Chef's uniform continues to evolve. Who knows what the future has to hold? One thing is certain though, the image of a Chef in pristine white jacket and toque is recognized the world over as a true professional.