The Professional Pastry Chef

What The Role Of The Professional Pastry Chef Entails, And How To Qualify

The professional pastry chef is found in bakeries, and in eating establishments which are large enough to have a separate pastry kitchen. There is a hierarchy within a pastry kitchen, with the executive chef, sometimes known as the head chef, at the top. The executive chef is the one who will decide on the menus and how the food is to be prepared. Under the executive chef will be at least one sous chef (literally 'under-chef'), depending on the size of the kitchen. Below the sous chef are the regular chefs who have little or no input into how the restaurant is run, but are solely there to cook the food.

The duties of the professional pastry chef include more than just the preparation of food, and will grow more diverse as you move up the chain of power. Do not think, however, that an executive chef's job is going to be unattractive because you will spend more time on administration than cooking. Although the head chef obviously has administrative work to do, he is responsible for the entire running of the restaurant's food preparation. It is the executive chef who sets the policy, and who gets to see his ideas come to life in reality. Anyone with a serious creative desire to become a professional pastry chef will aspire to the role of head chef.

The pastry chef has a tightly defined role, often in a separate part of a kitchen. If the job is in a restaurant, and not a bakery, the part of the kitchen where pastry is cooked will usually be separate, but closely connected to the main kitchen. It is definitely not a job for those who are shy of early mornings, as three o'clock starts are quite common. There is also quite a bit of physical work to deal with, including some heavy lifting. Even the act of kneading dough is itself quite taxing on the hands, and it is necessary to build up tolerance and strength over time.

If becoming the pastry chef in a restaurant or bakery is your big ambition, you will need to attend a course at a cookery school. The good news is that these cookery schools are very aware of the needs of the majority of students to keep their current jobs while they train. This is very much an industry in which hard work, effort, and dedication can see you through, no matter how poor a background you came from.

As well as continuing with formal education, the professional pastry chef will keep trying to develop new ideas and an individual style in his own kitchen. It is this constant striving for improvement which marks out the great chefs, and if you aspire to reach this level you will need the same dedication. The constant early mornings, the heat, the physical work and the need to keep learning mean that this is no easy life, but there is a lot of satisfaction to be had from the life of the professional pastry chef.

 

 

 

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