Lets Talk About Chef's Uniforms: A Rant Culminated Over 2 Years
So, in culinary school, I received my chef's jacket and checks: the calling card of the very profession I was going into. For the most part, double breasted jackets are white, with the name of the cook embroidered onto the chest. White was chosen in the 1800s because anything that looked "clean" was envied.
However, in this day and age, wearing a white jacket while working with food and markers is a really stupid idea: I was pretty darn lucky for not accidentally destroying my uniform (especially after having a sharpie follow one of my coats into the laundry once). My friends and chef were not so lucky: during our butchery section, I watched as a pen actually exploded in her pocket while she gave a lecture. She then went into talking about how she was so ready to switch to black chef's coats. Another friend accidentally left a marker in the arm sleeve of her coat, and ended up with an unevenly dyed grey coat. She ended up having to pay extra for a replacement.
Needless to say, the time the end of the first semester came, we were all done with these God-forsaken jackets.
This is a pretty universal problem, come to find out: ask any professional chef and they will probably go red faced and begin to rant like no tomorrow about these effing coats. I am baffled yet grateful that I somehow was able to avoid such a common blunder in this industry...however I did get humbled when I left the homework's recipe card in the breast pocket of my jacket (a story for some other time).
In summary: White chef coats can legit go to Hell.
