Published: by Erich Boenzli · This post may contain affiliate links
Why are there 100 folds in a chef's hat?
Let’s have a look a the second question first: Culinary lore has it that the 100 folds in a chef’s hat represent the 100 ways to cook an egg; although in Escoffier's standard tome of French cooking, “Guide Culinaire” from 1903, you’ll find 143 ways to prepare an egg.
Ask a chef what his or her favorite food item is in the kitchen and the answer most likely will be the egg. Why do highly decorated chefs ask an apprentice to cook an egg in order to judge the apprentice’s cooking abilities? Because it is so hard to cook the perfect egg. But why? Watch Gordon Ramsay’s reaction starting at 1:25 in this video:
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Why are there 100 folds in a chef's hat?
Are there really 100 ways to cook an egg?
About the egg
About the egg's behavior
Hard boiled eggs
Are there really 100 ways to cook an egg?
So the story goes that the 100 folds in a chef's hat represent the 100 ways to cook an egg, but is this true? Well, let's see...there's scrambled, over easy, over medium, over hard, poached, shirred, soft boiled, hard boiled, pickled, baked, sunny side up; in an omelette, quiche, or frittata; etc, etc, etc. And that's just where the egg is the main ingredient! Don't forget about how many other dishes include eggs as an ingredient...in cakes, souffles, breakfast burritos, egg noodles, mayonnaise, sauces. I could go on and on. So, there certainly are at least 100 different ways to cook an egg!
About the egg
Before we start on our journey to cook the perfect hard-boiled, soft-boiled, and poached egg perfectly every time, we have to delve a little into the nature of the egg. I’m not addressing fresh versus old, supermarket versus local farmer, etc. In general, try to get the freshest egg from the closest source you can; although, hard-boiled eggs tend to be a little easier to peel when the eggs are not super fresh. Or built your own coop. Because eggs are basically liquid protein (compared to steak), we can actually crack it open and - under the right temperature - they will solidify when we scramble them. That’s hard to do with steak.
About the egg's behavior
If we start boiling an egg in cold water, we will end up with a hard-boiled egg that can be very difficult to peel, as the inside of the egg fuses to the inside of the shell. We could also drop the egg into boiling water. By doing this, though, the whites will cook so fast that by the time the yolk achieves the right consistency, the white turns into a rubbery mass. As I said, it’s not easy. And then there’s the question about peeling the thing: add vinegar to the cooking water, put it in an ice bath, increase the water’s pH by adding baking soda, crack and roll the egg on the kitchen surface, or even just blow it out of the shell. I’ve tried them all and they all seem to work sometimes. And sometimes they don’t. Who knew that a product from an animal that basically poops breakfast would be so difficult to handle. Nothing is eggsact when it comes to eggs.
Add enough water to your saucepan so the eggs will be covered. Before the water starts to boil, add your eggs. Let it come to a boil. Cover the the pan with a lid and remove from heat.How long you let the eggs sit in the water depends on how hard-boiled you like your hard-boiled eggs and also depends on the heat-retention ability of your pot.
The easiest way to figure this out is by starting out with three eggs and remove them one at time after, say 7, 9 and 11 minutes (start the timer after you remove the pan from the heat).
That’s the easy part. Now comes the hard part: peeling the eggs. As I mentioned earlier, the freshest eggs can be the hardest to peel. Everything else works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t. But there are two techniques that I’ve started to use with consistently good results: after you drain the water from the pan, give your pan and eggs a good shake to crack the shell. Then, put the pan with the eggs under cold running water. As soon as they’re cool enough to touch, start peeling them under the running water. For easy cleanup, put a strainer in the sink. Enjoy.
Do you love eggs? Check out a few of our recipes in which eggs are the star ingredient!
The Perfect Scrambled Eggs - Every Time
Shirred Eggs - My Favorite Breakfast Mini-Meal with Maximum Flavor and Minimal Effort
Learn How to Make the Perfect Poached Egg Every Time by Using These Two Easy Tricks
Spinach Mushroom Omelette with Parmesan
Did you make this egg recipe? Let us know in the comments below!
In the early days, the number of pleats in the chef's hat represented the number of recipes a chef knew for a given food item, like egg or chicken. Having a hat with 100 pleats meant he knew 100 recipes to prepare with an egg. The same applied to the height of the hat. The taller the toque, the more a chef knew.
So the story goes that the 100 folds in a chef's hat represent the 100 ways to cook an egg, but is this true? Well, let's see... there's scrambled, over easy, over medium, over hard, poached, shirred, soft boiled, hard boiled, pickled, baked, sunny side up; in an omelette, quiche, or frittata; etc, etc, etc.
One thing that is standard is the head chef's hat must be white, as a symbol of cleanliness and good hygiene in the kitchen! It's been rumored that the 100 pleats in a chef's hat symbolized the number of recipes the chef has mastered, such as 100 ways to cook eggs.
A chef hat was originally designed as a tall rippled hat called a Dodin Bouffant or more commonly a toque. The Dodin Bouffant had 101 ripples that represent the number of ways that the chef could prepare eggs.
So, how much is a hundredfold exactly? We often think of it as 100 times the original seed sown, but in reality it can be much greater than that. More accurately, the hundredfold return is simply the greatest possible return on any particular seed sown.
“A chef's hat was often made of black cotton, and intended to soak up sweat on the brows of those working in sweltering conditions, blackened by the embers of the fireplaces. This headgear also served to prevent hair from falling into food and to protect the wearer from splatters.”
In the early days of French cuisine, the number of pleats were intended to represent the number of recipes a chef had mastered for a given food, like egg or chicken. Having a hat with 100 pleats meant you were a master chef.
Chef's hats are so tall because they were once a symbolic way to communicate a chef's skill level and rank in the kitchen. But this tradition all dates back to the 18th century.
In 1800s France, the tall, pleated hat became known as the Toque Blanche, literally white hat. There are differing stories as to who suggested it should be white, but all agree that it was because white symbolises cleanliness and hygiene – obviously two important qualities of a good chef.
The height of the chef's hat helps dissipate heat from the chef's head. Chef hats act like a fan, causing the air at the bottom to rise to the top. The hats protect the chef's head from bonks and bumps when he/she stands up near heavy kitchen equipment.
In the early days of the toque blanche, it was said that the number of pleats would often represent how many techniques or recipes a chef had achieved. For example, a chef would have 100 pleats in his hat to represent 100 ways he could prepare eggs.
Boiled, scrambled (soft or hard), poached, baked, basted, fried, shirred, coddled, pickled (as in quail eggs) and used to make omelets, quiche, frittatas, and soufflés. Eggs go into cake batters, quiches, breakfast burritos, toads-in-a-hole, and are used to make mayonnaise and hollandaise.
How valiant! Another good one: The hundred folds in a chef's toque (that tall, pleated hat) represent the hundred ways to cook an egg. Bon Appetit's April issue egg primer provided us an excuse to explore that adage.
These pleated headdresses were supposedly given to the chefs to evoke faithfulness in the cooks, since the royalty often lived in fear of conspiracy and poisoning. It was later that the hats evolved to a greater height. At one point, the hats had 100 pleats (though today there are likely only 48 or 50).
A chef's hat is known as the “toque” in French and it usually has exactly 100 folds. According to reports that number was no mistake and it serves a very important purpose. Keep reading to find out what it is. Some say that the folds on a chef's toque represent the many ways you can prepare an egg.
“A chef's hat was often made of black cotton, and intended to soak up sweat on the brows of those working in sweltering conditions, blackened by the embers of the fireplaces. This headgear also served to prevent hair from falling into food and to protect the wearer from splatters.”
The origin of the number of pleats in a chef hat is similar to the height of a chef hat. When the toque hat was first created, it was said that the number of pleats in the chef's hat represented how many techniques or recipes that chef had mastered.
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