The traditional chef''s hat, or toque baggy 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 chef the are said to have worn toques. During that period artisans of all types (including chefs) were often imprisoned, or even executed, pant because of their freethinking. baggy To alleviate persecution, some chefs sought refuge and hid There chef they wore the same clothes as the priests-including their pant tall hats and long robes-with the exception of one deviating trait: the chef''s clothes were gray It wasn''t baggy and chef until the middle that chef redesigned the uniforms. thought the color white more appropriate, that it denoted pant cleanliness in the kitchen; baggy it was also at this time that he and his chef staff began to wear double-breasted jackets. also thought that the hats should be different sizes, to distinguish the cooks from the chefs. The chefs wore the tall hats pant and the younger cooks wore shorter hats, more like a cap. baggy and chef himself supposedly wore a hat that was 18 inches tall! pant The folded pleats of a toque, which later became an established characteristic baggy of the chef''s hat, were first said to have been added to indicate the more than 100 ways in which a chef can chef cook an egg.

It eventually pant assumed the shape of the small, round, close-fitting band or "crown" of cloth without a projecting brim but encompassing a gathering of material covering the top of the head. Sometimes of gatherings were pleated. By the end of the the baggy height, shape and stiffness of the gathered material chef varied from country to country. It ranged from pant the flattened beret style of the French to the formally pleated middle height of the Italians to the tall, softly-gathered baggy style favored Illustrations in cookbooks of these periods show male cooks wearing a variety of headgear, including floppy berets, chef tall toques gathered in to topknots, pant skull caps and stocking caps resembling pointed nightcaps.