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Athena Chef Apparel
By Ed Avis
Denise Portillo is an experienced chef, restaurant owner, and entrepreneur. In fact, she was named Culinary Woman of the Year by the National Latina Business Women Association – Los Angeles in 2010.
Despite all that success, one thing eluded her: A chef’s coat that fit properly.
“All of the chef coats I found either made me look frumpy or had to be open on the front,” Portillo says. “Even the female ones are just a version of a male one. And if you’re only wearing an apron and a t-shirt, people don’t see you as a chef -- they think you’re just helping in the kitchen.”
So Portillo, who owns a deli called Herbal Apothecary in Whittier, California, sat down with a notebook and sketched out her idea for what a woman’s chef coat should look like. She hired a pattern maker to convert her drawings into workable patterns, choose the fabrics and buttons, and found a tailor to bring the uniform to life.
“It was a long, drawn-out process,” she remembers. “It was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I’m happy with the end result.”
The result is a line of women’s chef clothing called Athena. It includes two chef coats – one short sleeve and one long sleeve – a line cook’s jacket, a romper, and three front-of-house uniforms. Portillo contracted with a clothing manufacturer in Los Angeles to make the line, and she is currently selling the line from her web site, www.athenachefapparel.com.
“My inspiration was to create a line that made us looks like strong chefs in the kitchen,” she says. “I couldn’t handle the clothes that were out there anymore. It got to the point that if I have to wear one more jacket that squashes me… It’s just not what I think we should have.”