The Chef’s Wife and her Love for Chef Coats

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I just love washing chef coats.  It is absolutely, without a doubt, my favorite part about having a chef for a husband.

(Obviously I’m kidding!)

I really don’t like it at all.  They are a pain to clean and stains stick to them like super glue!

Also, have you ever wondered why chef coats are white?  The other day I was actually thinking, “What brilliant person thought white would be a good idea for a chef coat??  Why in the world would you put a cloth buttons on a chef coat?”

So I did what everyone else does when they have a question.  I Googled it.

Turns out, there are actually a few good reasons.  Who knew?  (OK, maybe you did.  But I didn’t.)

Here’s what I found out about chef coats that makes me despise them a little less.  (You can view my original source here.)

Because they are white, they can be bleached.  (I already knew this.  Just stating the obvious here.  They might turn yellow after a while, but it’s worth a try if the embroidery can handle it.)

White is reflective so instead of absorbing the heat of the kitchen, it deflects it.

They are double breasted so you can reverse the flap if it gets stained.

Plastic buttons could melt or break, so cloth buttons are used.  (I never thought of that.  I take back all my angry thoughts about cloth buttons and trying to get stains off of them.)

Well after finding out just those few things, I don’t despise cleaning them quite as much.  Ugh!

I just finished updating my page on How to Clean a Chef Coat with many different ideas of how to get those annoying stains out of chef coats.   If you have the pleasure of washing chef coats on a regular basis, please check it out and feel free to add to the list!  (And thank you to all my readers who sent in your suggestions for the page!  🙂

Happy Cleaning!

From one chef wife to another,

Jennifer

 

 

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4 Comments

  1. Rups

    I’m lucky that *usually* my husband’s job comes with laundry service. Also, that as executive chef in a hotel, he doesn’t normally have to work on the floor so he doesn’t collect too many stains. But ti’s not the stain-removing/ washing part that I hate the most. It’s the IRONING! I hate ironing with a passion and chef coats are the bane of my life! One job didn’t order his coats till he was in the job for 6 months and the ironing pile for those 6 months made me want to weep!

    Reply
    • Jennifer

      I totally forgot about ironing! My husband’s current coats don’t need to be ironed if I take them out of the dryer right away. But there have been some in the past that needed it, and yes, ironing is a pain and takes so long!!!

      Reply
  2. Jessica

    I forgot to mention: BriteWhite! My chef husband wears white t-shirts under everything and I used BriteWhite (found at Walmart) on them. It took a few washes but even after the first time, they were noticeably whiter!

    Reply
    • Jennifer

      Thanks! I’ll add that to the page. 🙂

      Reply

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