Chef Designs Chef Pants

Start with the waist, because that is the whole difference. The cook pant has a side elastic waistband and no closure at the front at all: nothing to catch on a rack handle, nothing digging in when you bend into a low oven, and a flat front under an apron. It is sold in waist and inseam, from 28x30 to 54x34, so you are buying a pair of numbers rather than guessing at a letter, and it carries four pockets -- two slack-style at the front, two patch at the hip.

The baggy chef pant is the traditional one and is bought for heat. A full elastic waist with a drawstring, cut wide through the thigh so air moves, with two side-seam pockets and a patch pocket at the back, sized in letters from XS to 3XL. It is the pant the check belongs to, and the check is not decoration: a black-and-white check hides a splash of stock at two paces in a way plain black does not, which is why it has survived every attempt the trade has made to retire it.