Eggs and Violence

My father told me that a chef’s hat (aka Toque-Blanche or just Toque) has a hundred folds. The hundred folds pertain to how many ways the chef can cook an egg. So, a chef with a toque knows how to cook an egg in one hundred different ways.

Despite my skepticism, I made my own research.

Besides the purpose of making a chef look professional, the brimless hat was also for sanitary purposes. This helps to eliminate stray hair from falling into the prepared food. Rumor has it that King Henry VIII beheaded his chef because of a stray hair in the soup served to him.

The Great Charles Laughton Portraying King Henry
VIII in the 1933 film The Private Life of Henry VIII

King Henry VIII on Food Sanitation

Another story was about the ancient Assyrian chefs who overthrew unpopular monarchs by poisoning the dish being served to them. Only the loyal and trusted men became court chefs. To acknowledge their patronizing positions, chefs were allowed to wear the crown of their choosing. Well of course a golden crown would be too much for these chefs, so they fashioned a special hat after it. Thus, to depict the ribs on the side of a king’s crown, pleats or folds were added to a chef’s hat.

Traditional versions of the chef hat always include one hundred pleats. In keeping with the Assyrian hat theory, the reason for the hundred pleats is because a master chef knew how to prepare eggs in a hundred different ways. In that time and part of the world, eggs were considered to be a symbol for the universe and was highly regarded.

King Ashurbanipal of Assyria feasting 

with his with his Queen (668-626 B.C.)

Some say the toque can be traced back to the seventh century A.D. Chefs were considered learned men . Educated men did not always get the respect they deserved and were often persecuted. In these times, they often took refuge in the local church, wore same clothes that the local clergy were wearing as a disguise.

Now I know. Now I am hungry. Soon, "A Hundred Ways to Cook Your Egg". For the meantime, check some of My Speggcial Egg Recipes. Bon appétit!Ü

Assisting Editor: Ms. Yasmin Ann Maninang

Reference:

The Straight Dope
Timeline of World History
Project Gutenberg's Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. Mackenzie
Answers
Wise Geek
Big Green Egg
Nothing is Written: a FILM BLOG, by Groggy Dundee
KNGHNRYVIII