Uniform

Maybe I'll be wearing a different white, double-breasted uniform
someday...

Today, when many of my college friends are in their double-breasted uniforms with their hair tucked away under a hat, seems like the perfect day to pay homage to my Cordon Bleu uniform and its strange sense of déja vous.

During our orientation, there was a section dedicated to our uniforms: how to properly wear them, what is required for each type of class, what the uniform means.  Student Services brought a chef up from the production kitchen to demonstrate how to properly wear our white chef coat, pants, hat, hairnet, and apron.  There was a little speech given about the importance of looking nice in uniform, how we represent ourselves and the school and French cuisine as a whole.  How being in a clean, pressed uniform means that we are ready to do our best to learn and bake and get the most out of our schooling here.  During the entire presentation, though, I couldn’t help but feel like I’d done this before.  Four times before.  Every year toward the end of ISUCF’V’MB Band Camp.

My marching band uniform meant so much to me.  It was always clean and neatly hung in a garment bag.  I understood the importance of its symbolism; how when I was in uniform I was the face of the University and the music program, and the embodiment of school spirit.  I still giggle a little at the similarity of my two uniforms, how I put them on: member shirt underneath, high-waisted pants first, jacket on top, a bun on top of my head, a whole pack of hair clips keeping stray hairs from sneaking out from under my hat.  Add a little sweat and I even look pretty similar after a long day at school than I did after a game.

Double-breasted coat, high-waisted pants, bulky shoes,
hat with hair hidden underneath, not particularly flattering...
the two uniforms are pretty similar!

Kitchen uniform, with my apron tied in front
in case I light it on fire

My school uniform is much like I expected it to be.  It consists of quite a few pieces.  From bottom to top: White steel-toed non-slip kitchen shoes (which I found in Des Moines before coming here), socks, black and white hound’s-tooth flame-retardant kitchen pants (which look grey from a distance), a plain undershirt (I usually wear a black tank top or a marching band member shirt), a truly double-breasted snap-up white chef coat with blue trim and the Le Cordon Bleu Paris logo embroidered on the left (we were given two jackets, since they are bound to get dirty in the lab kitchens), and our short toque (lightweight paper chef hat) with the LCB logo, as well.  Whenever we are in the kitchens, we are also required to wear a half apron, tied in the front with the bow tucked away and one little tail sticking out (for easy access in the event of a flaming apron), at least two kitchen towels tucked into the apron, and a hairnet. 

I am in love with our jackets.  They really aren’t flattering for most women, as they are straight-cut for men, but their sheer practicality is genius!  They are long-sleeved, but the cuffs are deeply slit to make rolling the sleeves much easier (and it’s a good thing – my sleeves are rolled to my elbows 95% of the time), and their double-breasted appearance isn’t just for show.  The snap covers are removable and the jacket can be worn with either breast on the outside.  In a restaurant or bakery atmosphere, this comes in handy when a chef, hard at work, pays a visit to his customers.  If his jacket is dirty, he merely flips to the other breast, rolls his sleeves down, and has a magically clean appearance for the paying guests.  How clever!

Our jacket sleeve has a little spot for two pens and markers,
which is also good for our name tags.  You can also see my
hairnet in this photo.

The jackets really are long-sleeved, and here you can see
that I have the opposite front on the outside of my jacket
(the other side had cocoa powder on it, and you can't even tell!)

Our toques, however, are less what I expected.  I was picturing the hat of every cartoon French Chef I had seen.  Like these guys:

The hats, though, aren’t exactly round.  They fold flat (which is really nice for keeping them in good condition), and when worn, the tops make us look, in my opinion, like a pack of particularly calm dilophosaurus in the classroom. 

(Photo courtesy of the Natural History Museum)

It’s cute, and I think I like it better this way than a truly round-topped toque.  The hats also have a few practical purposes.  A chef’s hat’s size signified his rank in the kitchen.  The taller the toque, the more power he has.  (Our chefs to have taller hats than ours, too!)  They also have a hygienic purpose:  They are fancy sweat-bands, soaking up forehead sweat so it doesn’t drip into the food!

Our hats aren't quite round on top.  The smaller someone's head
(like my tiny noggin in the second row), the more pronounced the effect

Overall, I love my uniform.  My towels are almost constantly in need of laundering, but I’m glad it’s not always my jackets!  My toque is still nice and un-wrinkled, and everything is comfortable.  I just always look back to my marching band uniform and thank it for giving me the respect and feeling of honor I have every time I pull on my hound’s-tooth pants and double-breasted white jacket with my hair in a bun and a hat on top.