The Simple Reason Traditional Chef Hats Are So Tall

The thing about chef hats is, if you knew nothing else about them, you'd think they were specifically made for hiding a rat under them. It wasn't until "Ratatouille" (a film beloved by Anthony Bourdain) came out in 2007 that we saw this hat used for its true purpose, but come on — just look at it. It's got a big top, puffy and round or tall and straight, and seemingly nothing else going on beneath it. What other purpose could it serve, apart from letting a rat hide under it so he can marionette you into being a great chef by pulling your hair, reminding a snooty food critic of the true joy of dining? As it turns out, the purpose of a traditional chef hat has nothing to do with rodents. It keeps hair out of food and signifies authority in the kitchen.

The chef's hat, also known as the toque blanche or simply a toque, was popularized in the 1820s, but some version of the accessory has been around for even longer. Artistic depictions of cooks back in ancient Assyria include cylinder-shaped hats (supposedly to signify their loyalty to the King but also probably to keep their hair tucked away.) Henry VIII allegedly took the matter quite seriously, beheading a chef who got hair in the King's food and demanding his replacement wear a hat. (Maybe he would have been less temperamental if he wasn't riddled with gout.)

Although chefs had been wearing hats for centuries, they weren't standardized until 1821. That was when Marie-Antoine Carême, a world-renowned French chef, took note of British military uniforms while cooking for the Ambassador to Vienna. Carême was a big fan — not only of the way the uniforms looked, but how they denoted authority. He developed his own uniforms, clean and white to signify discipline and purity topped off with a tall, pleated hat to match.

This hat served a number of different functions. Not only did it keep hair out of the chef's eyes (and off plates), the tall shape allowed for air flow that kept the chefs at least a little bit cool in the sweltering hot kitchen. It was also used to demonstrate the kitchen's hierarchy, with the head chef wearing the tallest hat of them all. (One theory has it that the pleats were a way to mark how many ways a cook knew how to prepare eggs, with more pleats indicating greater mastery.)

Nowadays, you see a much wider variety in headwear. Some chefs prefer baseball caps, some prefer bandanas (in the style of Sydney Adamu, the potato-chip-omelet-making chef from "The Bear"), while others prefer a beanie. Whatever style they choose, chefs are doing their darnedest to keep hair out of your food.