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Tall Chef Hat
The Tall Chef Hat, or toque blanche (French for "white hat"), has been around for more than 400 years. Back in the 16th century, artisans (including chefs) were among the "free thinkers" who were often persecuted, imprisoned, or executed because of their views.
To escape this treatment, some chefs hid in monasteries and wore the same type of clothing as the priests, including tall hats. However, chefs wore gray, while priests wore black.
"In the old days when they were cloth, they kept your head cool and the sweat from your eyes, there is a level of hierarchy with the height in some places, the paper ones come in 8", 10", 12" and 14" heights, most times now a days they are just for show."
"But back the turn of the 20th century when Essoffier was king the hat meant your status in the kitchen, the higher the hat the more important you were, Cooks who wear the tall chef hat were classically trained chefs, and even now a days it is more a sanitary situation, in the UK and Europe they have gone to the skull cap style, and it is the colour now that denotes your status in the kitchen realm of authority."
"The toque" (tall chef hat) dates back to the 16th century when hats were common in many trades. Different heights of hats indicate rank within a kitchen. The symbolism of the 100 folds of the toque are said to represent that many different ways a chef knows to cook an "egg".
"In the kitchens of France the tall chef hat, or "toque" served multiple purposes. It kept hair (and other things) out of the food, it helped to vent body heat since kitchens at that time had no air conditioning, and it indicated the relative importance of the wearer. The taller the hat, the more important the wearer. Therefore, the actual "chef" has the tallest hat."
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