Kitchen Staff Uniform Selection Pays Tribute to History and Practicality

Startup restaurateurs give loads of thought to how their servers should be dressed. After all, servers and other staff who work in the dining room are walking-talking components of your restaurant's concept. Face it, servers dressed like pirates and servers dressed like beer garden Frauleins give two very different impressions, no matter what the décor of the dining room. A server in a polo shirt and shorts automatically says "casual," no matter what the color of the tablecloth, while a server in a white dress shirt and necktie says "fine dining."

But what about the staff that guests may never see? Unless your restaurant has an open kitchen plan, guests may never see your kitchen staff -- or maybe just catch a glimpse of them as the kitchen door swings open. What your kitchen staff wears may have little to do with expressing your restaurant's concept, but lots to do with other important factors.

One of those factors is history -- or like the song from "Fiddler on the Roof" touts, Tradition! What a chef wears has a history that goes back hundreds of years. No one knows for sure how the chef's uniform evolved, but the black-and-white checked pants, white double-breasted jacket and white hat (or "toque") has roots more than 400 years old.