For chefs, personal style is on the menu

Now a sartorial makeover is underway in kitchens, as chefs go from culinary experts to bona-fide celebrities, riding the wave of top-rated food shows, social media virality, and consumer frenzy for unique and immersive culinary experiences. It’s hardly surprising that The Bear, the Hulu show about a fictional Chicago restaurant, puts such effort into costuming, from protagonist Carmy Berzatto’s (Jeremy Allen White’s) vintage denim collection and white T-shirts to Sydney’s (Ayo Edebiri’s) bandanas and her custom Thom Browne chef coat. Personal style has landed on the menu.

“Chefs now know what they want," says Anshul Kumar, Delhi-based fashion designer and founder of Uniformiti, a workwear label specialising in hospitality dressing. The firm’s office in Delhi’s Okhla neighbourhood offers a primer in product diversity—from the T-shirts and coats lined on shelves to aprons crafted from denim and leather, or floral-printed in punchy colours. Kumar has outfitted several chefs, including international figures like Ana Roš Stojan, George Calombaris and Gary Mehigan. Dhondy is among his long-standing collaborators, going back almost a decade. For Bani Nanda, who runs Miam Pâtisserie in Delhi, he created a pink uniform mimicking her brand’s signature colour. Uniformiti also offers custom details in one-off coats made for chefs running small businesses. “What we make for chefs should be in sync with their ideologies and creativity," he adds.

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Now serving, chefcore

If food is fashion, chefs are brand ambassadors of this intersection. At Mumbai-based Hunger Inc. Hospitality, each of its restaurants has a different uniform resonating with the culinary style and service experience. Chefs at The Bombay Canteen and O Pedro wear coats and aprons while Papa’s, the 12-seater property where chefs work across the counter from guests, takes a smart casual approach. “At Papa’s, we wear a very good-looking chef coat designed in the style of a shirt with Ikat details (which echoes the decor). I wear olive green, and the team wears navy blue with aprons," says Hussain Shahzad, executive chef, Hunger Inc. Hospitality, who dresses according to each location. Behind the scenes, he opts for an easier look. “On days I am rolling up for (kitchen) prep, it’s usually in black tees with joggers and sneakers and sometimes, a cap—I love trucker hats." If not in sneakers, he picks chef’s clogs from Birkenstock.

Shahzad’s looks lean towards chefcore, a term that writer Clayton Chambers coined last year in his newsletter Sprezza. Identifying collaborations and designs combining food and style, it refers to a casual, fashion-forward look among chefs. Think tees and cool outerwear, funky casual trousers, custom aprons, accessories, and sneakers in the kitchen. Hunger Inc. uses a Bandra-based tailor to make all their uniforms, including Shahzad’s.

The trend can extend to chefs in entrepreneurial roles who find themselves in front-of-house duties. “I don’t get much time in the kitchen unless I am innovating a new menu, training chefs a few times a week or going in to solve something that may not be working out," says chef Gurmehar Sethi who helms Ziu and Klap in Delhi. “I try to wear clothes that are sporty and comfortable so I can move in and out of the kitchen quickly," he says. His multi-functional attire includes T-shirts or linen shirts, light blazers, hair knotted up, and sneakers like a Nike Air Force.

For an Indian take on chefcore, turn to Anumitra Ghosh Dastidar, chef and co-founder of the restaurant Edible Archives, whose experiments have included wearing mundus with T-shirts. She has instituted a casual look for her kitchen in Goa, where shorts are permissible in summer. “In formal settings, my team wears chef coats. I prefer trousers with a black T-shirt and apron," says Ghosh-Dastidar, who is attached to her aprons and has about a dozen. For tees, she prefers multiple iterations of the same design that soften with use but do not wear out easily.

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Are T-shirts the new chef coats?

The T-shirt’s popularity in kitchens long precedes The Bear, especially at casual eateries. “We chose T-shirts because they are both comfortable and stylish," says Devika Manjrekar, head chef and owner of Mumbai’s Toast Doughnut Shop whose crew wears white tees with blue aprons. “The combination has a clean and fresh look, which also aligns with our aesthetic and brand identity."

Uniforms at Hunger Inc-owned Veronica’s sandwich shop comprise black T-shirts and aprons, paired with denim or joggers and often baseball caps. For events such as “Ode To Home" pop-ups at The Bombay Canteen or “Pedro’s Pals" weekend takeovers at O Pedro, Shahzad himself often wears a T-shirt designed for the front-of-house service team. The garment can potentially replace coats, he agrees, though it does not have the safety precautions of a coat. “You’ve to be an extremely precise and smart cook to rock a T-shirt. But they are super comfortable."

Despite the T-shirt’s ubiquity, chefs often revert to coats for formal events. Dhondy, who wears coats regularly, says, “I feel a sense of pride when I wear it." And for all their flair, kitchen dressing remains underscored by comfort, hygiene, and safety. Sethi highlights features such as tich buttons that snap open easily in case of a mishap. Chef coats are designed keeping such features in mind, but the thick fabrics used in classic designs can weigh down the garments. Uniformiti’s interventions include using shirting fabrics and lighter materials. There is rising demand for eco-friendly fabrics, such as recycled plastic yarn or Tencel. “Chefs work long hours, with few breaks, in environments where all their senses are activated," he says. “I want to make them good uniforms, because they deserve to dress well."

There is symbolism to the chef coat. But Ghosh-Dastidar observes, it can be reimagined with respect to weather and cultural connotations. Like most of her peers, she “lived in chef coats and pants" in her early years, a far cry from her normcore looks now. “At some point, I would like to make coats that actually work for us," she says. “In my food, I am ingredient-oriented. It will be the same with clothes."

Sohini Dey is a Delhi-based writer and editor.

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