Editing Toque (section)

==History and uses==
A tall, black toque made of [[silk]] or [[velvet]], often ornamented with an [[aigrette]], was fashionable among the [[Spanish nobility]] during the 1500s. This style is seen in a 1584 portrait of [[Isabella Clara Eugenia]] as well as [[Sofonisba Anguissola]]'s 1573 portrait of [[Philip II of Spain]], both in the [[Museo del Prado]]. The style spread across Europe, being adopted in France, England, Germany, and Italy. The toque diminished in popularity in the 1600s as wide-brimmed and [[cocked hat]]s became fashionable, but reappeared as a predominantly young women's fashion in the 1800s, accompanying long dresses and [[Chignon (hairstyle)|chignon]] hairstyles.<ref name="Chico">{{cite book |last1=Chico |first1=Beverly |title=Hats and Headwear Around the World: A Cultural Encyclopedia |date=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-6106-9063-8 |pages=449–451 |chapter=Toque}}</ref>

===Culinary===
{{see also|Chef's uniform}}
[[File:William Orpen Le Chef de l'Hôtel Chatham, Paris.jpg|thumb|upright|{{lang|fr|Le Chef de l'Hôtel Chatham, Paris}} ({{c.|1921}}), [[oil on canvas]] by [[William Orpen]]]]
A '''{{lang|fr|toque blanche}}''' ([[French language|French]] for 'white hat'), often shortened to toque, is a tall, round, pleated, starched white hat worn by [[chef]]s.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://blogmybrain.com/scrabble-word-finder/word/toque.htm | title=Definitions for: Toque | access-date=11 January 2014}}</ref>

The toque most likely originated as the result of the gradual evolution of head coverings worn by cooks throughout the centuries.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KUdYAQAAQBAJ&q=toque+head+coverings&pg=PA69 | title=So, You Want to Be a Chef?: How to Get Started in the World of Culinary Arts | publisher= [[Simon & Schuster]] | author= Bedell, Jane | year=2013 | page=69 | isbn=978-1582704364}}</ref> Their roots are sometimes traced to the {{lang|fr|casque à meche}} (stocking cap) worn by 18th-century French chefs. The colour of the {{lang|fr|casque à meche}} denoted the rank of the wearer. Boucher, the personal chef of the French statesman [[Talleyrand]], was the first to insist on white toques for sanitary reasons.

The modern toque is popularly believed to have originated with the French chef [[Marie-Antoine Carême]] (1784&ndash;1833), who stiffened the {{lang|fr|casque à meche}} with cardboard.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/magazine/who-made-that-chefs-toque.html|title=Who Made That Chef's Toque?|first=Daniel|last=Engber|newspaper=The New York Times|date=28 March 2014}}</ref><!-- and [[Auguste Escoffier]] (1846&ndash;1935) -->

===Judicial===
* A toque, or sometimes touge, was the traditional headgear of various French [[magistrate]]s.
* A low type in black velvet, called ''[[mortar board|mortier]]'' (also rendered in English as [[mortarboard]]), was used by the ''[[président à mortier]]'', president of a ''[[parlement]]'' (the royal highest court in a French province), and of the members of two of the highest central courts, ''[[Court of Cassation (France)|cour de cassation]]'' and ''[[Cour des Comptes|cour des comptes]]''.
* A red toque is sometimes worn by German judges, primarily by justices on the [[Federal Constitutional Court]].

===Academic===
The pleated, low, round hat worn in French universities{{spaced ndash}} the equivalent of the [[mortarboard]] or [[tam (cap)|tam]] at British and American universities{{spaced ndash}} is also called a toque.

===Heraldic===
{{see also|French heraldry}}
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2013}}
In the [[Napoleonic era]], the French first empire replaced the [[coronet]]s of traditional ("royal") [[heraldry]] with a rigorously standardized system (as other respects of "Napoleonic" [[coats of arms]]) of toques, reflecting the rank of the bearer. Thus a Napoleonic [[duke]] used a toque with seven [[ostrich]] feathers and three [[Mantling|lambrequin]]s, a [[count]] a toque with five feathers and two lambrequins, a [[baron]] three feathers and one lambrequin, a [[knight]] only one ostrich feather (see [[Nobility of the First French Empire]]).

===Athletic===
Toque is also used for a hard-type hat or [[helmet]], worn for riding, especially in [[equestrianism|equestrian]] sports, often black and covered with black [[velvet]].