There are two thing you might not know about a chef ’s hat , those towering and pleated blanched crown that are part and parcel of a gastronomical mavin ’s uniform . First , the right name is a chef’stoque , the French word for " hat . " Second , they commonly have exactly 100 folds . And that number is for a good reason .
According toBon Appétit , it ’s often said that the number of folds represent the number of fashion you may prepare an egg .
To dig up into the lineage of this culinary mythology , it helps to know where chef toques came from . While history is slightly fuzzy on their definitive origin , one tale demand Greek chefsfleeingfrom Byzantine invaders around 146 BCE and need refuge in monastery , where the marvellous opera hat - elan hats of the monks helped them go in . After the pauperization for a camouflage was run low , the chefs uphold assume the hats as a fraternal kind of garb .
Much later , in the 1800s , the toqueblanche(white chapeau ) was a vulgar vision in kitchen and connect to the belief that white symbolized cleanliness . The idea was allegedly circulate by the chef for Charles Talleyrand , the first French prime diplomatic minister . In the early day of Gallic culinary art , the number of plait were intended to act the number of formula a chef had mastered for a given solid food , like egg or poulet . Having a lid with 100 plait meant you were a master chef .
This idea also applied to the altitude of the hat . The grandiloquent the pillbox , the more a chef knew . If you saw a chef with a predominate crownwork , you could be certain they were potential the head of the kitchen . Marie Antoine Carême , consider a initiate French chef in the 1800s , was say to have worn one 18 inches in pinnacle — so improbable it call for cardboard support .
turban are n’t necessarily received attire anymore , but they still make up a devotion to the craft of cooking , and both their frill and height utter to a recollective tradition of mastering the artistic creation . After all , anyone who knows 100 different style to prepare an ball is for certain a fork to be work out with .
[ h / tBon Appétit ]
