cooks of the generally wore the "casque a meche" or stocking cap, the colors of which varied according to rank. is credited with introducing white as the standard color when he chefuniform insisted for sanitary reasons that his cooks wear white caps. During this period, cooks wore berets of white wool or ticking; wore pointed hats with a decorative tassel; the wore starched caps and black skull caps sometimes referred to as librarians'' caps. In addition to stocking caps, cooks, especially pastry cooks, wore a bank of linen or ticking with a central mound of the same chefuniform fabric pleated on the edge. By the end of the century, it was full, heavily starched and held in the middle with a circular whalebone, producing the effect of a halo.

Yet another version, similar to the ascribes the pattern of the modern-day toque to the headdress of During the decline of the at the end of chefuniform the sixth century, intellectuals and artists sought Many of these mend were good cooks and became chefs in the kitchens. Some imperial chefs from royal households As a disguise, these refugees adopted the habits and headgear of their hosts -- but, instead of the traditional black, they chose garments in white. Sifting fact chefuniform from fiction seems impossible. Many people believe that today''s toque blanche is a more recent result of the gradual evolution of head coverings worn by cooks through the centuries. Looking through illustrations of past headgear, one sees that the "toque" originally referred to a head covering worn by both men and women.

Our first class chefuniform session of culinary will answer a subject that many of our have been asking about--what the different positions or divisions of the kitchen are. We chefuniform will define each of the classical kitchen positions. Not every professional kitchen has a different person for each of these positions (i.e. in smaller establishments often one cook might perform the responsibilities of several different stations or positions). Chef: The term literally means "the chief" in Every kitchen has a chef or executive chef who is responsible for the operations of the entire chefuniform kitchen. (A commonly misused term not every cook is a chef.)