toque
/təʊk
/noun
1A woman’s small hat, typically having a narrow, closely turned-up brim.Hats off - from berets to toques, from homburgs to pillboxes - to Dame Edna: The Royal Tour....
- ‘They're like your regular toques, they just happen to have a brim on the front - it's the in thing’.
- Riders had toques, leg warmers, scarves and winter gloves on to keep themselves warm.
1.1 historical A small cap or bonnet resembling a toque worn by a man or woman.
1.2A tall white hat with a full pouched crown, worn by chefs.Desroches' alfresco restaurant lets you wiggle your toes in bare sand, while a chef with a tall toque and suitably Gallic accent does delicious things with the catch of the day and fresh local vegetables....
- Confident of his abilities and hungry to promote his ideas about classical and contemporary cuisine, Matthews quickly traded his sous chef's hat for a taller toque.
- With much flourishing of fork and spatula our table chef deftly threw his cooking utensils in the air, deftly sliced the tails off shrimps and tossed shrimp scraps into his toque (the chef's hat).
Origin
Early 16th century: from French, of unknown origin.