The Salary of a Pastry Art Chef
If you are thinking of leaving your job to enter into the happier life and more modest salary of a pastry art chef, you are not alone. Even successful lawyers have left their firms to find happiness in the simple joys of beautiful and delicious pastry-making.
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What Is a Pastry Art Chef?
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A pastry art chef is a highly specialized type of chef who focuses on making baked goods like pastries and cakes into works of art for special occasions. She makes or oversees the preparation and baking of the pastries. Once the pastry is made, a pastry art chef will decorate it through the use of icing, frosting, puree, flowers and other decorating techniques to add to both the flavor and presentation of the dessert. Pastry art chefs generally only work in specialty bakeries or high-end restaurants.
Qualifications
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When looking to hire a chef of any kind, employers prefer experience over education. Restaurants and bakeries value years of working in the kitchen in the food service and hospitality industry over a certificate from a culinary institute or associate degree in hospitality. However, earning a certificate or degree while already employed as a pastry art chef will often give you greater earning power and creative license from the restaurant or bakery.
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Salary Range
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Chefs and head cooks, under which the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists pastry chefs, made a median $38,770 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent of chefs took home between $29,050 and $51,540 a year. The mean or average salary was $44,240 the following year, according to Occupational Employment Statistics. Location is a big factor in determining wage; the mean annual salary was $80,940 for chefs in the greater New York area while Brunswick, Georgia, chefs averaged $28,450 a year in May 2009.
Considerations
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The food service industry has been affected by the recent recession, but not as much as you might think. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects growth in the industry to be good though slower than most industries. They note that high-end and specialty restaurants will have stiff competition, which includes the specialty of pastry art.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Pastry Up image by Galaiko Sergey from Fotolia.com
