Amy Cray

I’ve been cooking since 1979. That was the summer I created an awful thing called “raisin stew” while sitting on the step-stool of my family kitchen, throwing bits of  Triscuit, orange segment, milk and raisins into a plastic bowl and pronouncing it revolutionary. I created a recipe card to accompany this feat, which is likely tucked away in my mother’s scrapbook papers somewhere. My sister made gagging noises just to look at it, but I was fascinated by the idea of creating something new and exciting from simple ingredients (hmm, sound familiar?).

Fast forward twenty years, and I’ve been working as a private chef for 10 years. My clients’ needs vary, from an in-home business dinner where the stakes are high and the guest is crabby, to a casually ridiculous birthday party where the guests break into the samba before the dessert course is even served. I do all the shopping, cooking, serving, table setting, mood making so they don’t have to.

Throughout this time I’ve done huge weddings, company launch parties, bachelorette parties, you name it. I catered with several high end companies and for a short time even operated my own. And what I’m getting to is this: In all these years I’ve not had a single decent fitting chef coat or mildly attractive pair of pants. And the shoes, well, let’s not even start on the shoes.

Below is a standard chef coat one would pull out of the uniform closet in a restaurant in any city. You grab your size, throw it on over your concert tee, grab a quad espresso and get to your station:

Note the complete lack of shape, awful shiny plastic buttons and all-over ill fit for any female cook (which believe me, is still a rare sight). I modified the look slightly in my early days by tightly wrapping a service apron at my natural waist to create a sort of high-waisted pencil skirt shape. This helped only slightly because the rest of the outfit was comprised of:

Green plastic gardening clogs (perhaps a crocs precursor).

and

Standard poly-blend checked chef pants with a tapered leg (oh joy). Note there are typically only men’s pants available.

Back when I started cooking, the hip chef fashion pant was Chefwear’s “Baggies” line: elastic waistband and tightly tapered, decorated with your choice of patterns- clip art-like renderings of chili peppers, koi fish, tobasco bottles, whatever. Mine were covered in green and red grape clusters- a fashion choice I still stand by considering the other options. I used to have a link to the full “look” but it has now disappeared from the internets out of embarrassment.

Not being so much in the “industry” anymore, I could afford to be progressive with my chefwear and break out into something new. I do still need to represent with a proper chef coat, and there are a few nice looking ones (with cloth covered buttons, tapered waists, or mandarin collars), but even those women-shaped options are just so predictable in style. Decent, but still uninteresting. White or black coat (or denim.. the reason for this option escapes me completely). Check pants or black pants. Dansko clogs. Blah.

So here’s the final question: how to cultivate a uniform “look” while not actually wearing a uniform? Where to find well cut pieces that will stand up to frequent washings, oil splatters and pomegranate molasses? A few pockets, some natural fibers, smart clean lines and we’re in business.

Remember that scene in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead where Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate) turns a uniform factory into a modern and hip high fashion line?

No, you say you were three when that movie came out?

Help.