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Responsibilities of a pastry chef

A Pastry Chef or Patisserie is a professional cook who prepares a variety of baked items, desserts, and other sweet related dishes. A trained pastry chef is responsible for preparing the dessert menu along with the executive pastry chef, involved in creating a wide variety of desserts, bread, and everything from scratch. Other roles of a pastry chef include structure an overall dessert menu, food tasting with staff, don the role of a supervisor in the absence of the executive chef, and assist with scheduling staff.

There are varied options to choose from for a pastry chef, such as baking and pastry, being a chocolatier, making candy or cupcakes, or anything that hits the sweet spot. Inventing new desserts with various ingredients and having a good knowledge of the items used is the core of chef training. Before taking the plunge into real-time restaurants or a professional kitchen, the chef needs to have hands-on training. They also need to have a number of skills and abilities, apart from baking goods; they need to know the tricks and ways to bring in customers turn the first-time customers to regular visitors; chefs also should possess leadership skills, time management skills, assign tasks to the chef staff, make well-balanced decisions and be in the moment.

Pastry chefs have a chance of working in a wide range of kitchen and culinary environments, right from large and small restaurants to franchise bakeries, hotels to convention centers, and bistros to casinos, there are varied places where a pastry chef can search a job/position. Most of the time, pastry section is maintained separately to the main kitchen. If you want to get your place as a pastry chef in the organization then the structure of training or stages of training starts with the individual being a line or prep cook. A line cook is responsible only for parts of the kitchen like the stove or oven or one specific section, wherein they assist the executive chef or head pastry chef in their tasks like preparing ingredients ahead. This is usually a basic way and the best way to gain experience and understand how a kitchen functions.

The roles of a pastry chef changes according to the place of work, if the restaurant is big then an assistant pastry chef role comes into picture wherein, the individual needs to assist the executive pastry chef by creating icings, fillings, preparation of bread and other baking-related activities. The pastry chef is a challenging job they need to be strong and ethical in their work field. They have to foresee the situation, requirement of the customers by bringing and making the right amount of confectionaries. Along with ethics, the patisserie needs to be energetic as their work demands long hours on feet.  

One need not have a formal education to become a pastry chef, but they might sure need either prior experience by crossing through the stages explained above or by enrolling into proper training programs. There are universities that offer degree/formal training/other certifications focusing on the skills of baking. Structuring of the programs is as per the requirement of the student. If the individual is aspiring to work in high-end restaurants or cruise ships then the programs/courses are accordingly available.

Pastry chef job is a high-demand profile that either allows you to be a team player by joining in restaurants/bakeries/other pastry shops or start a confectionery shop on your own. Choices are jobs are abundant; it is time for you to decide.

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