How Do I Become a Pastry Chef?

If you enjoy cooking and baking, are passionate about desserts and have the discipline to work hard and manage your time wisely, you might wonder how to become a pastry chef. Pastry chefs are the culinary professionals in professional kitchens who specialize in creating delicious and visually-appealing cakes, cookies, breads, pastries and other dessert items. Pastry chefs are also known as pâtissiers.

Pastry chefs find employment in many types of kitchens, from hotels and upscale restaurants to cruise ships. While pastry chefs must be able to follow recipes, they should also have the creativity and culinary appreciation to create new recipes of their own. In addition to tasting good, the pastries made in these professional kitchens must also look good. For this reason, pastry chefs must understand the visual art of making food as pleasing to the eye as it is to the taste buds. Creating desserts for a professional kitchen is different from making them around your home. Pastry chefs are in charge of developing full dessert menus and acquiring the supplies. They must be familiar with the cost of ingredients and maintain inventories with the right amounts of the ingredients they need. Pastry chefs may specialize as chocolatiers, fine bakers or dessert specialists. They may also advance to employment opportunities in restaurant management.

Pastry chefs learn many of their professional skills through on-the-job training. They often begin as entry-level workers in a pastry kitchen or pastry station of a restaurant. They may have to begin with even lower-level jobs, such as dishwashers, and prove their dedication to the restaurant and their work ethic to move up. As they develop their skills, they can advance in their careers. However, the culinary industry is competitive, especially for advanced pastry chef positions in upscale restaurants and hotels. Earning a formal education is one way candidates can set themselves apart and improve their marketability. Many educational institutions now offer culinary programs, including technical schools, community colleges, universities, and of course culinary arts schools. These programs provide students with plenty of opportunities to cultivate their skills in the kitchen while also covering such important topics as how to plan a menu and health and safety requirements when dealing with food.

Chefs of all kinds earned a median salary of $40,630 per year, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. While they often work early mornings or evening and weekend hours, when patrons are most likely to dine out at restaurants, pastry chefs are passionate about the work itself. They enjoy the creativity of their work and the satisfaction of knowing that people enjoy their desserts. Do you have a flair for making desserts that look and taste delicious, enjoy concocting your own recipes and have the organizational skills to coordinate every aspect of the dessert preparation process? If so, knowing how to become a pastry chef could be the start of a fun and creative new career in the food service and hospitality industry.

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