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From head to toe, from kitchen to stove, from the White House to the Ritz Carlton, Chef Revival offers the clothes and tools to help you get the job done—less the fuss. We chatted up with half of the pioneering duo behind it
Story Annie Nisce
Photography Chef Kim De La Villefromoy
Now counting close to 25 years in the business, Chef Revival began as an idea of two young Australian chefs, Kim de la Villefromoy and Tim Grubi, who decided it was about time to make clothes that they believed chefs would want to wear—comfortable, durable and with a fashionable touch. Their signature button- and zip-less Wrap-Style Pants and pullover Chef Tunic, for instance, are considered firsts in the Industry.
I started cooking at the age of 16 as an apprentice pastry chef. I was very fortunate as my Chef Pierre Charkos of La Renaissance ran a high level French patisserie during the day and in the evenings ran a cooking school. This hard but classical start gave me the training and discipline to move forward throughout my life.
Chef Revival’s startup was a whirlwind of a time. My then-partner, Tim Grubi, was creating cool, unique pants for chefs. We bought two second-hand sewing machines and learned to sew and screen print, which we often did in the early hours of the morning after we returned home from cooking. We had to sew everything and somehow work our regular jobs and make it to tradeshows on a very tight budget. Fortunately a lot of great people helped in all sorts of ways, especially in those early days.
Chefs’ uniforms don’t have to be starchy. Chefs had been wearing the same old uncomfortable uniform for hundreds of years. The French company, Bragard, was the only one prior to us that was making real professional however expensive clothing. We wanted to create cool, comfortable, practical, affordable clothing you would be proud to wear in the restaurant or walking to it!
"Designed by Chefs for Chefs" was a phrase we coined from the very beginning. We created the first button-less jacket, called the Tunic. We added black trim to cover some of the spots that get more soiled and, hey, it looked good. We were the first to place the pen and thermometer pocket on the shoulder. We invented in conjunction with a fabric mill the QC2000® poly-cotton that has a soil release feature built right into the fabric to help get those stubborn stains out--another first when it comes to chefs’ clothing.
More of Chef Kim de la Villefromoy’s Q&A in the March 2010 issue of Appetite
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