We have been through a season that we did not win for scares: the undeclared presence of horse meat in various prepared dishes or expired meat in sausages we must add the discovery of the corpse of a mouse in a can of green beans and, as a finishing touch, the food poisoning of the clients of the presumed best restaurant in the world.
Let’s stay with the latter. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for these incidents to occur in public catering. On the other hand, it is that they receive the attention of the media. The thing only tends to transcend if it is about famous restaurants (now it is the Danish ‘Noma’, not so many years ago it was the British ‘Fat Duck’) whose chefs are, precisely, very fond of appearing in the media… although not for these reasons.
There are lots of possible causes of poisoning in the restaurant, from the use of products whose conditions are not very well known to cooking techniques (low temperatures, very brief cooking) that, in case the food contains bacteria that can cause gastroenteritis, it The only thing they do is… tickle. They don’t eliminate them: they enhance them.
But I’m afraid the most common cause of these problems is something as simple as the lack of hygiene. Hygiene. Cleaning. Something that is taken for granted in a restaurant, or in someone who handles food intended for human consumption. It is paradoxical that if you visit a canning factory they stuff you in plastic from head to toe, and even make you step on a mat soaked in disinfectant, while in the kitchens everyone walks on their own.
These days, with the news of ‘Noma’, photographs of the staff at work in the kitchen have been published. Get attention. There are no gloves, no chef’s hats; yes, instead long hair. It seems that the new geniuses of the kitchen understand that a kitchen is a photocall. And not. It’s not about being pretty, it’s about being (and it seems, what Julius Caesar would say) clean.
The chef’s hat (the “toque blanche” in French) is not a whim. And it is much more than a tradition. There is no agreement on its origin, which probably dates from medieval times (there are references to headdresses for culinary staff as early as the papal court in Avignon, in the 14th century). In any case, most of the authors point to the great French cook Marie-Antoine Careme (do not confuse the name: it was a boy) as responsible for its consolidation.
It is said that on one occasion, when Carème ran the kitchens of Prince de Talleyrand, he invited Tsar Alexander I to dinner. The autocrat of all the Russias, pleased by the menu, wanted to go into the kitchen, and he did. There he met a citizen -Carème- who did not undress in his presence, as was his obligation. Outraged, he asked: “Who is this insolent?” Talleyrand replied: “The kitchen, Sire.” Let’s say that Carème was later head of the Tsar’s kitchens in Saint Petersburg.
He Chef’s hat has its mission: to prevent hair loss from food. Today the traditional ones, mushroom-shaped and handmade, have been replaced by the industrial ones, open at the top. This opening, and its height, facilitate greater oxygenation of the scalp in a place, the kitchen, where traditionally it was very hot. As a curiosity, let’s say that tradition wants each hat to have a hundred boards or folds, which would symbolize the hundred ways there are (they say) to cook an egg…
Toque. And white. The cooks, in the kitchen, like the tennis players at Wimbledon: in white, which is the color that hides nothing. Hands washed like those of the operating room staff, short nails and (needless to say) spotless… Now, in the kitchen, “no hat” is also popular; many chefs cover themselves with a black bandana, pirate-style. It doesn’t look very aesthetic to me, but it’s something.
Black scarf… We talked about white hats, white jackets, and today there are many cooks who have made black their uniform: they wear black in the kitchen and, when they wear “in civilian clothes”, they put on a black shirt. Curious, to say the least.
In short, our media chefs claim the right to make their own image, and have decided to dispense with the traditional attire of the profession: hats off, then. It seems good to me, if it’s your taste, that they stand out for the traditional “return to the ring” (to the room, I mean) that they usually give at the end of the service to receive the congratulations of the diners. But, masters of the kitchen, let us be the ones to discover ourselves before your art.