What Do Pastry Chefs Make?
Pastry chefs must know how to handle many different types of dough to create distinct products. They should be able to wear numerous hats in the kitchen, producing pastries from flaky breakfast-style products like brioche or croissants to puff pastry-based creations like cheesy gougeres and cream puffs. Beyond pastries, the pastry chef should also be skilled in candy-making, dessert plating and, of course, making beautiful cakes.
Other People Are Reading
-
Cakes and Pastries
-
Cakes are essential elements of a pastry chef's repertoire. A pastry chef's knowledge should include a foundation in classic cakes such as the French gateau and the St. Honore, which is less of a cake than it is a towering ensemble of pastries, and classic tortes like the multi-layered Dobosh, apricot-infused chocolate Sacher and jam-filled Linzer tortes. Pastry chefs should be able to glaze, ice, mold and fill cakes, as well as make bombes, a type of cake with a domed shape.
Pastry chefs should be able to make individual as well as large volume pastries scaled for pastry buffets, banquets and retail. This may involve making sheet cakes and French pastries such as financiers, which are rich tea cakes enriched with brown butter and ground nuts.
Frozen Desserts and Confections
-
Pastry chefs may be in charge of preparing individual desserts at a restaurant, including the plating of the finished product. They may develop a dessert menu that encompasses hot and cold desserts, with ice cream, sorbets and glaces being incorporated into a dessert concept. Plating and constructing a dessert require thoughtful consideration of temperature, texture and negative space. Additionally, pastry chefs may make custards, mousses and floating islands, in which meringues bathe in creme anglaise. Chocolates and confections are also items the pastry chef should be able to make by hand or through special machinery. They should be able to produce chocolates and candies with centers of marzipan or ganache and be able to make jellies.
-
Cookies, Petits Fours and Mignardises
-
Small bite-size treats called mignardises that are served after a meal are tools of the pastry chef's trade, and may include cookies or other one-bite desserts within the larger group of post-meal petits fours. Pastry chefs should know how to make an assortment of dropped, piped, rolled, sliced or bar-type cookies. Among the petits fours that pastry chefs may be called upon to make are tiny napoleon squares, eclairs, bouchees, which are puff pastry shells stuffed with sweet or savory fillings, or bresiliennes, small bonbons made from coffee, cocoa and rum.
Tarts
-
Tarts are shallow, open-faced, sometimes fluted-edged pastries that pastry chefs should be able to prepare, including fruit-filled, nut-filled and chocolate varieties. These short-crust creations may consist of apricots, blueberries, chestnut or frangipane, a kind of almond custard.
Caramels, Sauces and Garnishes
-
Plated desserts with decorative touches are hallmarks of the professional pastry chef. It is through the pastry chef's artistic use of "extras" that he can bring the dessert creation to life and thrill his clientele. Garnishes do several things: they decorate the plate with colors, offer different textures to contrast with the dessert, and they highlight the main ingredients usually without additional cooking or baking. Syrups, sauces, foams, creams and crispy tuiles are only a few examples of garnishes a pastry chef should be able to make.
-
References
- Photo Credit Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images
