Chef Designs Pearl Button Chef Coats

A pearl button on a chef coat is not decoration and it is not mother of pearl. It is a moulded button chosen for one property: it does not go yellow under the bleach and the temperature a commercial laundry runs at, which is why the coats that carry them still read as white after a season and a cheaper coat reads as cream. Eight of them is the standard double-breasted set. Ten places the same buttons closer together, which gives more overlap across the chest and a slightly dressier front; kitchens with an open pass tend to order the ten.

The knot button is the third answer, and it is a trade-off rather than an upgrade. A knot is tied from cord instead of moulded, so it survives being pressed flat by a hot press without cracking, and it comes off in a commercial dryer sooner or later, which is why a kitchen that buys them keeps a card of spares in a drawer. Under all three fronts the coat is the same: a pre-shrunk 65/35 poly-cotton twill with a stain-release finish, a stand-up collar, vented clean-finished cuffs, a chest pocket and a thermometer pocket on the left sleeve of the eight-button coat.