Toque roots are sometimes traced to the "casque à meche" (stocking cap) worn by 18th-century French chefs. The colour of the "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 (1784–1833), who stiffened the "casque à meche" with cardboard . The pleated, low, round hat worn in French universities the equivalent of the mortarboard or tam at British and American universities is also called a toque.
A Christmas Kind of Town A Christmas Kind of Town A Christmas Kind of Town is a Christmas album released by the band Marah in 2005. Tim Sendra of Allmusic called "A Christmas Kind of Town" an "utterly heartwarming and joyous album". Jim Musser of the "Iowa City Press-Citizen" called the album "upbeat, inclusive and downright irresistible". Jay Lustig of "The Star-Ledger" wrote that the song "New York Is a Christmas Kind of Town" is "a thoroughly modern Christmas song, but one with a classic feel". The album was dedicate to "anyone and everyone, regardless of religion or race, who just likes it when December