Pastry chefs are in the “thick” of the action in kitchens of large restaurants, hotels, resorts, and cafeterias around the world. If you’re the creative baker, as well as the organizer and manager, while simultaneously being able to handle the business affairs, a career as a pastry chef might be just the ticket.

Experienced pastry chefs who graduate from advanced pastry chef school programs are the chefs in a large kitchen who research and prepare new recipes, as well as plan the dessert menus for special events and parties and order the supplies necessary to run the dessert kitchen. Pastry chefs also sometimes manage a team of other baking and dessert professionals, including the bakers, assistants and apprentices in their chef station. Pastry chefs usually have years of schooling at pastry chef schools, as well as on the job training before being considered a seasoned pastry chef.

Students in pastry chef school will train in a mixture of on-the-job training, as well as learning in the classroom. The pastry chef school criteria will most likely consist of the basics taught to students attending bakery school, which includes basics in ingredients, breads, rolls, pies and cakes. Pastry chefs must be skilled in both baking, as well as the specialized training given in pastry chef school.

Pastry chef school students will also be required to take classes in biology, physiology and the history of baking. Because pastry chefs deal with many perishable items that can produce bacteria such as raw eggs and dairy products, students in pastry chef school need to learn what environments produce bacteria, how to cook the food at temperatures that make the food safe and the history of the products they are producing.

Hands-on, or on-the-job training will consist of learning the basic tools of the trade such as handling knives. Pastry chef school students will also be taught how to measure raw ingredients to baking rich, flavorful and flaky pie crusts, turnovers and tarts; to creating the perfect sorbet, soufflé and chocolate candies.

Presentation of baked goods by the pastry chef is almost just as important as the taste. Baked desserts prepared by the pastry chef must look almost better than they taste. Students in pastry chef school will also learn the art of creating presentation – the perfect desserts you see in photographs in magazines, or rolling by on the dessert cart at the end of a delicious meal.

Create a Future in Pastry Chef School
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, pastry chefs make an average of $25,000 per year and executive pastry chefs can make as much as $60,000 per year. Pastry chef schools offer a wide variety of program levels and students may choose to earn a baking and pastry chef certificate, an associate’s degree in applied science of culinary arts or a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts.

Depending on the specialty, students enrolled in pastry chef school programs may also choose to take business management, accounting, customer service and marketing classes in addition to the curriculum in the pastry chef school program.

If you think you have the creative baking skills necessary, as well as the desire to run the dessert chef station, pastry chef school is where your future will rise!