Baker and Pastry Chef

As a baker and pastry chef you make bread, buns, cakes and sweet creations from scratch. You work with dough, dough, cream and chocolate and transform flour, butter and eggs into something people look forward to eating. When you are done you have a journeyman's certificate and are trained in a craft where taste, quality and appearance must come together.

§What do you do in everyday life?

The day starts early often while the rest of the city sleeps. You knead and proof dough shape bread rolls and tend to the ovens so everything is freshly baked when customers arrive. As a pastry chef you work more with fine cakes — you whip cream roll marzipan temper chocolate and decorate cakes and French cakes so they both taste and look good. You keep track of recipes weigh ingredients precisely and ensure hygiene all the way.

• 01You learn to bake bread and rolls from scratch so they rise, taste, and keep.
• 02You become good at working with cream, marzipan and chocolate as a pastry chef.
• 03You learn to decorate cakes and tarts so they look inviting and professional.
• 04You work with recipes, weighing and temperatures so the result is the same every time.
• 05You get on top of food hygiene, so what you make is safe to eat.
• 06You get a craft where you can see and taste the result of your work right away.

§How do you get started?

You typically start with a basic course at a vocational school, where you learn the basics and try the trade in the school kitchen. Then you need an apprenticeship at a bakery or pastry shop where you alternate between going to school and working in production. As an apprentice you get paid during training and learn the trade by doing the tasks in reality alongside experienced bakers and pastry chefs.

§The way forward

With the journeyman's certificate you can work in everything from the local bakery to large industrial bakeries cafés restaurants and hotels. You can specialise become production foreman or take the leap and open your own business. If you want to go further the journeyman's certificate can be a springboard to further education within food management or entrepreneurship.

“The smell of freshly baked bread early in the morning — that's a baker who was at work while others were sleeping.”