Pastry Chef Education: What Do I Need to Study for this Career?

Do you love baking pastries to a degree where you're thinking about making it a career? If so, you're probably wondering how to go about doing so. While getting a job at a bakery is certainly an option, doing so will require that you work from the bottom up. This can take a while, and it limits what you learn to the pastry chef you're learning from. A better course to take would be to enroll in a baking and pastry arts program.

The benefits of a baking and pastry arts degree

The following are some of reasons why you should enroll in a baking and pastry arts program instead of attempting to work yourself into a baking and pastry career through a local bakery:

• Develop a strong foundation - While you may have learned a lot simply by making pastries or baked goods with family members or by looking up recipes online, you need a much more solid foundation than that in order to pursue a successful career as a pastry chef. By getting a formal education, you'll make sure that you learn what you need to know to create a solid foundation of skills and knowledge to build off of. This includes learning basic baking techniques, baking terms, how to use different baking tools and equipment, and much more.
• Get hands-on training - There's no better way to learn how to bake than by doing so in the kitchen. When you enroll in a reputable baking program, you'll not only be provided with hands-on training, you'll be trained with experienced baking and pastry chefs who know what they are doing. While you can certainly get such training at a small bakery, the chef you work for will limit you. At a program, you'll work with numerous chefs, ensuring a more well-rounded education.
• Learn a variety of styles - Not only will different chefs who have different styles teach you, you'll also learn different styles of baking. If you work at a small bakery, you'll be limited to learning how to make what that bakery offers. So if you're working at a small American bakery, you may never learn how to make French pastries. If you go to school for baking, you'll learn how to make a wide variety of baked goods and pastries from all over the world, from cakes and tarts to custards and artisan breads.
• Build relationships that can help your career - A lot of the people you'll work with at a pastry shop or bakery aren't going to be working in that field for very long. The only meaningful relationships (workwise) that you'll foster are the ones with the chef. When you go to school to obtain a formal education, you'll build valuable connections with the teachers as well as the students. Many of the teachers at a baking and pastry arts program will have connections out in the real world that they can use to help you get a job following graduation. Not to mention that the relationships you create with fellow students could help you find work in the future as well.
• Open up your potential career paths - When you get work at a small bakery or pastry shop, you'll have to work your way up. It can take years to go up the ladder, especially if the pastry chef or head baker is younger and isn't planning on going anywhere. If you decide to try your luck at another business, you'll be limited to the type of bakery or pastry shop that you worked at. When you earn a degree, you'll boost your chances of being able to secure a job at a wide variety of different places. For example, your degree could help you get a job as a baker or pastry chef at bakeries, grocery stores, restaurants, resorts, hotels, and more.

What you'll learn in a baking and pastry program

The following are some of the things that you will learn when taking classes at a baking and pastry program:

• The math involved with baking (weights and measures)
• The methodology of mixing and baking methods
• Piping, torting and icing
• Making artisan breads, laminated pastries and sweet doughs
• Baking pastries
• Pastry presentation techniques
• Kitchen safety and sanitation
• Purchasing ingredients and cost control
• Production efficiency
• And more

A reputable baking and pastry arts program will not only provide you with a balanced education on making baked goods and pastries, it will also touch on the business side of things.

Are you interested in becoming a pastry chef? If you want to earn a Baking and Pastry Arts Diploma, ECPI University's Culinary Institute of Virginia offers this program at an accelerated rate. For more information about this exciting diploma, connect with a friendly admissions counselor today.

It could be the Best Decision You Ever Make!

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Gainful Employment Information – Baking & Pastry Arts - Diploma

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