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Who the world's first celebrity chef?
Long before Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse, Antonin Carême gained international fame, by cooking for kings and writing cookbooks that brought haute cuisine into 19th-century homes.
Carême was known for placing self-portraits in his cookbooks. In 1822, he used one (right) to display his original designs for chefs' uniforms: a clean white coat and hat, or toque blanche, which can be worn loose or made to stand tall with a piece of cardboard. Today’s chef’s uniform remains virtually the same.
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