Starting a new career as an executive pastry chef can open up a wide range of opportunities for creativity, travel, and personal satisfaction in your chosen field. Pastry chefs work in restaurants and bakeries throughout the world designing and creating new pastries and desserts; from cakes to tortes to crème brulees, pastry chefs oversee every aspect of dessert creation in the kitchen or bakery. There are two main paths to becoming a pastry chef, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Get a Pastry Chef Apprenticeship
Many pastry chefs get their start in the profession as an apprentice to an established chef already working in the field. By starting at the lowest level, aspiring chefs can develop a more comprehensive understanding of the various elements at work in the kitchen. This hands-on and ground-up experience has proven invaluable for many pastry chefs, since they get a first-hand look at the challenges and procedures used by professional pastry chefs and receive step-by-step mentoring in their craft.
Typically an aspiring pastry chef begins at the bottom rung as an apprentice, and works his or her way up through the various levels of expertise and responsibility. Apprentice pastry chefs may be called upon to assist in other areas of the kitchen, and are given progressively more difficult tasks and greater autonomy until they are a fully qualified pastry chef. With additional experience, the chef can attain the highest rank of executive pastry chef and assume full responsibility for selecting and ordering ingredients, managing prep work, and designing the desserts and baked goods created and served by his or her staff.
Undertaking an apprenticeship is a lengthy process. Depending on the level of training desired, the skill of the mentor, and the environment in which training takes place, apprentice pastry chefs may take as little as six months or as long as three years to be ready to assume full fledged pastry chef duties. The title of executive pastry chef is typically the pinnacle of the chef’s career; as a result, the length of time necessary before achieving this elevated status varies significantly from person to person.
Pastry Chef Education
An alternative method for learning the tricks of the trade is to attend one of the many pastry chef schools out there. Classes devoted specifically to pastries and desserts offer advanced baking and cooking instruction, and coursework incorporates the newest methods and technologies to ensure that students graduate with a comprehensive knowledge of the most cutting-edge techniques available. Culinary school can be expensive; while scholarships and student loans are available for studies at accredited institutions, the cost is still a significant factor for most aspiring pastry chefs.
Culinary school offers a quick entrée into the employment scene, however. Rather than spending months or years as an apprentice or commis chef to an established patissier, graduates can often begin work as a pastry chef right after completing their studies. Their enhanced qualifications and state-of-the-art training ensures that their skills will be in demand throughout the restaurant and bakery world. The initial cost of tuition is frequently offset by the increased salary that professionally-educated pastry chefs can command in the marketplace. While culinary school graduates may lack some of the practical knowledge acquired by chefs who undergo the apprenticeship process, they typically have experience with all aspects of modern restaurant operations and can offer a wider range of skills to their employers in the restaurant industry.