Over 105,000 pastry chefs work in the United States, creating and decorating delicious cakes, cookies, chocolates, candies, and more. Did you know that pastry chefs are 81% more likely to work for a private company than a public one? Starting your own pastry business is more achievable than you might think. Do you want to know how to become a pastry chef? This guide provides all the necessary steps. We will also discuss the best pastry and baking insurance option for you.
Are you trying to research how can i become a pastry chef? When starting out, you should consider steps like working in a bakery, getting a pastry degree, and honing your craft before starting your business.
When answering how do you become a pastry chef, the first step is to start working in a bakery with an experienced pastry chef. Under this chef, you will gain experience that allows you to develop your baking skills and learn about the business side of becoming a pastry chef.
At a bakery, you will get experience filling orders in a fast-paced environment where you have to get things right. This is different than learning how to cook at home. There are no time constraints at home, and you don’t have to please a customer. A bakery will teach you proper food handling and safety procedures necessary to make products safely.
While learning how to become a professional pastry chef, you must choose how you want to specialize. If you earn a culinary degree, you will also learn baking but have much less specialized knowledge. In contrast, at a pastry school, your course focuses on learning slower-paced baking techniques like icing a cake and making macaroons.
Either degree you earn will help you in your goal of becoming a pastry chef but will push you towards one side of the industry. For example, with a culinary degree, you will have an easier time getting a job at a restaurant that serves various menu items, including pastry desserts. With a Baking and Pastry arts degree, you may be more suited to working in a bakery, pastry shop, or pastry catering business.
As a pastry chef, you must hone certain skills to help you become successful. These skills include:
Creative thinking: As a pastry chef, you must hone your talent as a problem-solver who can accommodate client requests and deviate from recipes when necessary. You must know when to apply a certain recipe or when one of your older recipes can be updated. You will often make customized desserts requiring an artist’s eye to create something tasty and aesthetically pleasing.
Time management: Your job as a pastry chef will often see you running around preparing different ingredients for your recipes. You must manage your time effectively to ensure that baking projects come together quickly enough to meet deadlines and stay efficient. Pastry businesses can become busy quickly, and you want to plan effectively to avoid not having to rush your creations.
Executing recipes: Cooking is considered both an art and a science. Many recipes contain exact measurements created with the science of cooking in mind. For this reason, you need to be able to follow recipes with an understanding of this science to create a consistent quality product every time.
Working with a team: You will often be working as part of a team as a pastry chef. You may be managing multiple chefs or taking instructions from a more experienced chef. In either case, you will need interpersonal communication skills and the ability to cooperate on a project with others. Other chefs must rely on you in the kitchen to hold up your share, and kitchens can be very stressful. As customer orders pile in, you must work in sync with your fellow staff members to ensure orders get sent out quickly and consistently. You will also need to be able to handle the pressure of the kitchen and the long hours that come with it.
Often, your work as a pastry chef will see you delegating tasks to different team members working together to complete multiple projects, especially in large kitchens. Because of this, there are different tasks you may be drawn to and could specialize in to set yourself apart in the industry. Some of these focuses are compared below.
Glacier: If you have the glacier role, you will be responsible for producing frozen desserts like ice-cream cakes, sherbert, Italian ice, and mochi.
Decorator: As a pastry decorate, you need to have an eye for detail and create pleasing visuals alongside desserts. You will use techniques like sugar art, icing writing, piping, hand painting, and fondant work to enhance the presentation of a baked good. Decorating is a critical part of special event pastry creations like wedding cakes.
Confectioner: In your role as a confectioner, you are an expert at making sugary candy, which is sometimes mixed with your pastry goods.
Baker: A baker creates food products in the oven made from flour. As a pastry chef, you will typically be baking products like cakes, cookies, pies, crumbles, and cupcakes.
Through an apprenticeship program, you can learn the job of a pastry chef from every angle through a hands-on program. As an apprentice, you will get practical experience in a real kitchen while also spending some time studying in a classroom setting. You will likely start out assisting veteran pastry chefs with basic tasks like portioning ingredients and food preparation. However, as you gain experience, you will be given opportunities to test your skills in a real environment. You should ensure that your apprenticeship program is accredited through the American Culinary Federation to ensure that it will help count towards your eventual certification requirements. These apprenticeships are offered from various sources, including colleges, trade schools, and culinary schools.
Apprenticeship programs last variable amounts of time, depending on the program. You should expect to commit at least one year to one. As an apprentice, you will receive several hundred hours of classroom instruction and thousands of hours of job training as an apprentice. You will need at least a high school diploma or equivalent education level to be accepted into an apprenticeship program. Apprentice pastry chefs often work odd hours, and you will be expected to work at the discretion of the full-time pastry chefs when they have work that needs to be done.
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Are you ready to learn how to become a certified pastry chef? To become a high-level pastry chef, you must get certified to be officially recognized and be considered for a prestigious position. Here are some certification options you can get from the American Culinary Federation
If you’re wondering how to become an executive pastry chef, then approach the American Culinary Federation and enroll in its Certified Executive Pastry Chef® (CEPC®) program. Here are the details:
| Education Requirements | Experience Requirements | Mandatory Course Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| -High school diploma or GED with 150 hours of continuing education OR-250 continuing education hours OR-Associate’s culinary degree-ACFEF apprenticeship program | -Five years as an executive pastry chef within the past 10 years OR-Five years head of production of baked goods, pastry, or confectioneries within the past ten 10 years | -30 hour course in nutrition-30 hour course in food safety and sanitation-30 hour supervisory management-30 hour beverage managemen or advanced pastry-30 hour cost control and management |
Certified Working Pastry Chef® (CWPC®) program is ideal if you’re a pastry chef but doesn’t have enough experience to avail higher certifications from the American Culinary Federation. The table below provides all details:
| Education and experience requirements | Mandatory Course Requirements |
|---|---|
| -High school diploma or GED with five years entry level patissiere experience OR-150 continuing education hours with five years entry level patissiere experience-ACFEF culinary arts/baking certification with four years entry level patissiere experience-Associate’s degree in culinary arts/baking with three years entry evel patissiere experience-ACFEF apprentice program with 4,000 hours training | -30-hour course in nutrition-30 hour course in food safety and sanitation-30 hour supervisory management |
Opt for this certificatio if you don’t have experience in working as patisserie but have the background and skills. The details for these certification are in the table below:
| Education Requirements | Mandatory Course Requirements |
|---|---|
| -High school diploma or GED-75 continuing education hours | -30 hour nutrition-30 hour food safety and sanitation |
This certification is for those wondering how to become a master pastry chef. However, we can’t provide the requirements and other specific details as the American Culinary Federation are updating these.
Even if you don’t have the time to work towards earning a pastry arts degree or studying in a classroom setting, you can still start a pastry business from your home. You can save on overhead costs from managing a commercial kitchen while learning and improving your craft at home.
You might have zero experience baking or performing duties as a pastry chef, which is okay. Now more than ever, people have greater flexibility to practice skills from the comfort of home. You can use resources like cooking tutorial videos to help practice your skills so you can deliver products that people would be willing to pay for. You can also sign up for online cooking courses that can teach you valuable skills and count towards your eventual culinary or pastry arts degree. When learning how to become a pastry chef online, you can decide what subjects and baked goods you want to make with total freedom. These online courses offer step-by-step guides and can be explored at your own pace.
When starting out as a pastry home business, you might focus on selling to people in your immediate network, like friends and family. However, as your business expands, people will need a way to custom-order your pastry products and start to see you as a legitimate business. Opening an online pastry shop allows you to fulfill orders for customers more easily and advertise your business to more people. You must buy a domain name and design a website allowing customers to order their favorite cakes, cookies, and candy.
A food blog is a simple thing to start that will get you into the habit of thinking of your pastries. It allows you to keep track of your progress as a chef and doubles as an excellent promotional tool for your business. As people read your food blog, they might get hungry for your creations, which you would conveniently also sell online. Aside from promoting your products, your food blog can also help you connect with like-minded pastry enjoyers. Many of the popular food blogs today started from unknown people until they eventually reached a greater height of popularity.
If you want to know how long to become a pastry chef, the answer varies based on what level you want to reach. You can call yourself a pastry chef without any formal training and still have a business selling goods to people. However, if you want to reach the highest echelons of the industry, it will likely take several years. Are you curious about how many years to become a pastry chef on average? Getting a college degree to aid you in becoming a pastry chef will take two to four years. You could also choose to go through an intensive training course that will allow you to start working as an entry-level pastry chef in three to nine months. On average, you will need around 1-2 years of experience to work as a pastry chef to get hired in many restaurant settings.
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If you start a pastry business without proper insurance protection, you might be asking for trouble. A lawsuit from a disgruntled client can cost you thousands of dollars and potentially end your business aspirations before they start. A business owner's policy is one of the most comprehensive insurance policies on the market. This insurance policy combines different coverage from necessary insurance policies for your convenience. Purchase a BOP from NEXT now.
Your business owner’s policy includes several policies that may differ based on your business needs and possible risks. Some policies typically included in a business owner’s policy include:
General liability insurance: With general liability insurance, you gain protection against many types of third-party claims. This policy helps you pay legal expenses when you need to protect yourself against bodily injury, property damage, or personal injury claims.
Commercial property insurance: You use commercial property coverage when your pastry shop, equipment, inventory, materials, or tools get damaged in a physical event. These events include things like theft, vandalism, fire, and burst water pipes. The price of this policy varies based on the value of the property you are trying to ensure.
Professional liability insurance: This policy is also called errors and omissions insurance. It protects you from costs related to your business mistakes, which include helping you pay legal fees when someone sues you. The policy also helps defend against copyright infringement claims, libel, slander, bad advice, and claims of business misrepresentation.
Business interruption insurance: You can utilize business interruption insurance when an event like a fire or theft forces you to suspend business activities temporarily. This policy helps you pay employee payroll and compensate for lost business income. You can also use this policy to help you pay relocation costs, rent payments, and more while you get back on your feet.
With a business owners’ policy, you have a one-stop shop for most of the claims you must make for your business. This ensures you spend less time contacting different insurers and means you get a consistent level of service every time, no matter what situation you face. A business owner’s policy is also more cost-effective if you plan ahead. While it may be tempting to go for a cheaper policy that offers less coverage, you are losing out. A business owner’s policy costs less than buying several policies separately. In the long run, you save money with a business owner’s policy even though you might be paying more upfront.
1 / 5
Use anyone except Employers. Period. They are non-transparent and shameful. After I complained long enough to warrant a call from a supervisor, the supervisor called back from a PRIVATE NUMBER (no caller ID), left a message that they are not reversing their decision (without any communication with me), and failed to leave a phone number for me to call back. She was hiding! They also fact find via email and phone calls, which is terrific for speed and communication. However, after setting a precedence of email or phone calls, they send time sensitive information via email, without any heads up... they are hoping you miss it and forfeit via expiration. Evil policies. Go elsewhere.
1 / 5
This place is an absolute joke of a company and should be ashamed of the way they conduct business. I was hurt on the job at the end of July and it took them just shy of 7 weeks to issue out a paycheck to me. Yes the amount was back dated but still. Not many have the luxury of not receiving a paycheck for almost 2 months. To top it all off, the original adjuster marked me down for the wrong state which caused a problem from the get go, I've had 3 different adjusters now since each one can't seem to figure out the simplicity of my claim. All my paperwork which includes, my job, house, and drs visits all are from the same state and city but yet some how I have been filed under a completely different state 1500 miles away. They do not answer your phone calls or emails no matter how many you leave. I've had to escalate my frustrations to the supervisors of each of these individuals in order to even get some kind of response. I've had more communication and information given to me about my claim from the customer service representatives then the actual adjusters.......... please tell me how that works?! A serious overhaul needs to happen here in order to serve your clients the way they deserve to be taken care of. 10/10 do not recommend this company to a single soul on earth
1 / 5
I have never had the displeasure of working with a more incompetent and disrespectful person in my life. I’m an injured worker and the adjuster that was assigned to my case was named Carrie Furgeson. In the past 6 weeks that I’ve been injured and out of work I have only been able to get ahold of her twice, not for lack of trying. I have left countless voicemails, countless emails, and she ignores them all. When I am finally able to get ahold of her I’m greeted with terrible customer service. She is rude, she talks over me and I’m hardly able to get a word in edgewise. She spelled my name wrong on my documents even after I spelled it for her properly countless times, this caused a whole new issue with my bank. I have bill collectors from the hospital calling me demanding payment and Carrie Furgeson won’t do a single thing to help, or to get them paid. All of my documentation is in Colorado, my job is in Colorado, my address is in Colorado, all my Dr offices and appointments have been in Colorado and Carrie still managed to hold my claim because she wasn’t sure what state she needed to file it under. It’s been 6 weeks since my Injury and my company still hasn’t received the wage paperwork to fill out so they can get me my correct wages. When she’s not ignoring me she’s answering my questions with “I don’t know” well I don’t know how she got this job, because apparently she doesn’t know anything about it. She is a disgusting morose individual inside and out and I genuinely wish her the worst in all of her future endeavors. I highly recommend you don’t use this company. Please if you are a business owner and your looking into this company please don’t use them. I’m sure they have the cheapest payment and that’s why companies use them in the first place, but you will be doing your employees a grave disservice by forcing them to venture into this absolute dumpster fire of a company. I would rate 0/5 if possible but 1 was the lowest I was allowed.
5 / 5
Their general liability insurance purchase process is simply the best online experience I've ever had in my life!
5 / 5
As long as they cover your line of business, you're literally covered! best rates, best coverage, best online experience, best professionals, can't be happier that I chose them!
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