It all started with a late evening phone call from Maurice O´Flynn (yes,the famous one and only Maurice O´Flynn). Claude, he said, tomorrow at 7am you are buying me a breakfast at the Four Seasons. Claude responded with the question of what is so important that we had to breakfast so early. Wait and see was Maurice´s response. Excellent food of course with our good friend and Excecutive Chef Beat Hegnauer. Maurice opened his briefcase and showed Claude a beautiful Toque. Claude asked him where he got it. South Africa Maurcie replied. That next day (2am Canada time, 10am France time) Claude called Daniel Demagny to tell him that Maurice and he would like to visit him after the Culinary Olympics in Frankfurt, Germany. Daniel was very surprised that one of his famous Toque had made it to Canada and would gladly make the time to see us. In the fall of 1988, after a very good showing by Team Alberta (Maurice was the team manager at the time),we met with Daniel in Paris. Claude was curious if Daniel would consider having a distributor for North America. The next day Daniel said he could construct a pleating machine for Claude (a must have) for a price ... of course. Claude told Daniel that a test market was a must before investing that kind of money and Daniel agreed to sell Claude 10,000 Toques so he could begin a trial run. Eager and with the help offriends and chefs across Canada and the US we began. The response was more than positive. After a few days of serious thinking about what to do Claude called Daniel and ordered a pleating machine. In early January 1996, Claude received a huge Christmas present, his pleating machine shiny and new just like a new toy. In April of 1996, production started after rigorous training and Chef´s Hat Inc. was born. Soon after, fueled by success of the famous "La Toque Demagny", Chef´s Hat began providing chef apparel and accessories to fully complete the look of today´s culinary professional.