How to Become a Bakery Chef

Becoming a bakery chef, pastry chef or baker requires talent, experience, education and hard work. Talented bakery chefs chefs earn good money. If you love creating delicious baked goods and seek a rewarding career, here's how to become a bakery chef.

Things You'll Need

• Baking experience
• Ability to read and follow directions to the letter
• Good mathematic skills, particularly in measurement and weights
• Physical stamina and strength

Instructions

1. Assess your fitness and interest in becoming a bakery chef. Do you love to bake? Do people rave about your baked goods? Most bakery chefs begin their careers as home bakers and gradually transition into doing what they love full time. Make a list of your particular strengths, whether it's decorating intricate cakes or baking melt-in-your-mouth breads and rolls. This list will lead you to consider the direction for the next step.

2. Gain experience in the baking industry, whether at a commercial bakery, retail bakery store, or behind the scenes working in a restaurant or hotel kitchen. Many great chefs began their careers as apprentices. You will have to work your way up from the bottom. It's not uncommon for bakery chefs to try several positions before finding a niche.

3. Investigate culinary schools. Bakers, bakery chefs and pastry chefs typically attend a culinary school to learn the proper kitchen skills they need to be successful in their careers. Culinary schools also provide job opportunities and often match student chefs with local job opportunities so that you gain hands-on experience.

4. Apply to schools specializing in preparing pastry chefs or bakers. Be aware that a baker works behind the scenes in the kitchen, typically preparing the foods. The title of "chef" often refers to a leader--the boss of that particular specialized area. Thus, a pastry chef if often found in a specialized kitchen at a hotel or restaurant, creating dessert menus, determining ingredients and assigning tasks in the kitchen area for which he or she is responsible. Pastry chefs focus on dessert items such as cakes, pies and delectable pastries. Bakers, on the other hand, may become bread artisans or work in small local pastries, creating all types of baked goods.

5. Complete your education and work at various roles in bakeries, restaurants, pastry specialty outlets, and even commercial kitchens to see what suits your particular interests and talents.

Tips & Warnings

• Bakery chefs work long, odd hours. Most bakers begin work around 2 or 3 a.m. and end work around noon. If you're a night owl, consider another culinary career.

• Talent is often innate. Baking and culinary careers are one of the last job areas where talent may outweigh education. Prove to employers you've got the right stuff while working, even if the job is a small one. Build your resume!

• Bakery chefs and any culinary jobs are physically demanding jobs. You'll be standing on your feet and moving around the kitchen at top speed. You'll need stamina along with skill.

• You may need to start at the bottom and work your way up to chef positions. Celebrity chefs, although common on television, are rare in real life. Perseverance will lead to success in the baking and food services industry.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Read an interview with a bakery chef to see if you'll like this career.
• Job profile for bakery and pastry chefs