does anyone have a job in a baking related field, such as a baker, pastry chef, restaurant owner ect.?

Question

If so I have some questions that I need answered. I am doing this project and it would be really helpful to have these answers.

Where did you learn your skills?
Were you trained after you started your job?
Did you take any specialized class? What?
Did you go to school? Where?
What are the benefits of this position?
How many hours do you work a day?
Thanks!

thankyou so much!

Answer 1

I used to own a restaurant. I learned my skills from Bon Appetit magazine and a plethora of cookbooks. I was trained a bit by the former owners in the 3 weeks until we took over, but that was just on being a bartender. Specialized classes, I went to Iowa State University and took management, hospitality, and sanitation classes for a semester.

Benefits? Practically none. Aside from the joy of making people happy and seeing the end result of my work. I worked about 85-95 hours a week, if you count working at home too. There are always bills to pay, menus to design, research to do. Per day at the restaurant was about 13 hours.

Hope I helped!

Answer 2

I had a lot of the basics down already. But I honed my skills at the Art Institute of Philadelphia. It was located in Philadelphia, PA. Most jobs whether hotels, restaurants, or bakeries, etc, have their own way of doing something. If you work in the industry you will find that something as common as a chocolate chip cookie can be made into something oh so complicated depending upon where you work or super easy.

In addition to acquiring my degree; Yes I had specialized classes as well with Lenotre of Paris, France to further refine my skills in traditional French artisan breads.

One of the benefits of being a pastry chef and baker is you always smell good. smelling like fresh baked bread and chocolate are much more appealing scents than smelling like onions and garlic. If you are good at what you do and you are highly sought after you will make tons of money.

The number of hours you work depends on where you work and the agreements you made upon being hired. It could be part- time of about 3 or 4 hours on up to 16- 20 a day. It all depends on the agreements that you set.

Many times in a hotel or restaurant there is a higher chance of working more hours depending upon the establishment. But again you have to discuss these things ahead of time.

Answer 3

I was trained back in the 70's at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, so that I never needed "training" in my job......One thing I did NOT excel in was Baking, and to this day don't care much for it.......it's too exacting a science, whereas you can more or less "eyeball" measurement of ingredients for a dish.......I have a post graduate degree, Master's Science, Nursing (MSN) which is my primary job at the present........we also run a B&B (at our home, it's detached from the house and a LOT of work to run, but the income is sure worth it!!!!) At any rate, during the summer ( our prime season ) we work our regular jobs and have to be up at about 5 in the a.m. to serve breakfast to our B&B guests........Hope that helps out somewhat!!!

Christopher

Answer 4

Like Christopher I am now in the medical field working on my BSN. However, my culinary experience started at 3 when I told my mother I hated the way she cooked my eggs fro breakfast. In short she bought me a stool , my own pan and said,," cook your own and you have to eat every egg you cook". I also helped bake breads, can lots of food, and just help in the kitchen if it had to do with food. I went to the community college with my parents and took different cooking classes with them and later got a volunteer job cooking pancakes for the local masonic hall. When I was old enough to work I got a job as a dishwasher and soon began doing prep work then got to work on the hot side of the kitchen. In high school I taught the foods class many days i had more knowledge than my teacher,like cooking Chinese and Japanese. I continued cooking at many restaurants on the line getting as much experience I could. After high school I attended CIA in NY and went to Tokyo to attend sushi school for 6 months. I didn't specialize in any one thing but, now teach and cater in cast iron "camp" Dutch ovens. I cooked for 22 years and had enough of the rat race in the kitchen. Now, I enjoy more of what I cook and can even pick who my customers are. I bake breads every other day using old sourdough methods and love it. My work days were often 12 to 18 hours long, sweaty and hard. But I loved every minute of it. Most of my experience came from on the job training and I still learned alot from the CIA. But, since I now am a nurse full time I enjoy my cooking knowledge a bit more since I don't have to do it in a high stress situation. I catered the 2002 winter olympics using Dutch ovens with several friends and had a blast doing it. Now I cook for people who don't want to cook on camping or hunting trips, weddings, historic events, and other things. But, it's all on my time and terms. I have also now written 2 Dutch oven cookbooks and enjoy writting and testing and creating new recipies. It's now a serious hobby that pays for itself and you cant get better than that.
Dave