So You Think You Can [Pastry] Chef? It’s Not All Buttercream and Beignets

If you’re considering culinary school, learning the stories behind and getting professional insights from award-winning pastry chefs like Michelle Palazzo is advisable.

“Growing up, I have vivid memories of sitting in pastry shops, sharing desserts and espresso with my family. By high school, I was always baking — especially cakes,” says the ICE alum. “Around the age of 14 or 15, I knew this was what I wanted to do.”

Next Stop: Training & Dedication

Whether your passion for pastry was formed early like Chef Michelle’s, or is something you came to as an adult, training to become a professional pastry chef is a career track with varying destinations.

All of them fall under the craftsperson rubric, which means that professional work precedes the awarding of the “Pastry Chef” title. (Translation: Pastry chefs are managers, and while formal pastry education is important, it does not mean you immediately gain the title of Pastry Chef upon graduation from culinary school.) As with all other job titles — both culinary and corporate — “working your way up the ladder” is part of the deal.

Passion and hard work are thus key components of the craft. So, too, are skills development and learning foundational techniques. (This is where formal education can help.)

The Institute of Culinary Education offers several types of pastry education: recreational classes for those with a casual curiosity, and comprehensive Pastry & Baking Arts programs for those seeking to turn their passion into a profession.

What is a pastry chef? (And how is this different from a pastry cook?)

Let’s start with pastry cooks.

Pastry cook is something of an entry level role. These culinary professionals specialize in the creation of desserts, baked goods, and other sweet and savory treats, and they work in environments ranging from restaurants and bakeries, to patisseries, educational centers, and food service and catering operations. They can also toggle between these workplaces within the span of their career.

Pastry chef is a more senior — and sometimes director and executive-level — role. Pastry chefs contribute to executing the desserts, pastries, chocolates, and other delicacies within their purview, while also leading resource and people management.

As such, this role blends hands-on preparation and baking with the administrative and kitchen management duties that support it. Becoming a pastry chef typically takes years of experience and hard work — and usually, working as a pastry cook precedes becoming a pastry chef.

“At one time, the term pastry chef was limited to someone who worked in restaurants, hotels, and high end catering,” says ICE Lead Chef-Instructor for Pastry & Baking Arts Missy Smith-Chapman. “Now the job of pastry chef is a lot broader. You have to do everything.”

A good example of this is Chef Jϋrgen David. Before assuming the role of ICE’s Director of Pastry Research and Development, he acquired and honed his skills by working across nearly all facets of the industry.

“I dabbled in cakes and pastries,” he says with an ironic wink and nod to the scope of his knowledge. “I worked in a restaurant. I did airline catering [and] worked in a chocolate shop in Switzerland [and] ran a hotel kitchen in Norway.”

Trained in Vienna as a patisserie and certified confectioner, Chef Jϋrgen attributes his professional pastry chef title to a combination of formal education and lengthy employment history. In early roles, he was a pastry cook. His experience, coupled with the responsibility of running staff and resources of various hotels, shops and kitchens, made him a pastry chef.

What are the job responsibilities of a pastry chef?

Generally speaking, baking and decorating comprise a fraction of a professional pastry chef’s workload. Depending on the specific job, additional duties can include any or all of the following:

• Equipment maintenance
• Retail services and sales
• Menu development and ideation
• Administrative tasks / record-keeping
• Professional development and education
• Staff recruiting, onboarding and management
• Food safety compliance and education dissemination
• Ingredient and prepared item inventory, ordering and stocking

What technical skills and personal qualities benefit pastry chefs? 

When people talk about becoming a pastry chef, the aspect of the job that’s most often referenced is creativity. This makes sense. Craft is hands-on. Food is a form of art. We eat with our eyes.

All of these truisms are… well, true. But becoming a pastry chef requires more than being “creative.” (Otherwise, everybody could / would do it.) Key skills include:

Organization and planning ahead 
“Time management, especially in pastry, is crucial,” says Chef Michelle.

Patience, perseverance, and consistency 
Chef Jϋrgen notes that his students often struggle with the importance of repetition. “Just because you make croissants one time doesn't mean you know how to make croissants,” he says. “When we do piping practice with buttercream, you have to pipe that tray 1,000 times so that you're good, right?”

Receptivity to feedback and coaching 
“It’s saying ‘yes’ to opportunities and learning from every experience — even the tough ones,” says Chef Michelle. These, she explains, are “the hallmarks of a successful pastry career.”

Physical capacity
Being on your feet and working with heavy equipment requires stamina. “You have to be physically strong as well as mentally strong,” says Chef Missy.

How do I become a pastry chef?

Because there are several paths to becoming a pastry chef, there are several answers to this question.    

Perhaps the better question — one that speaks to varying schedules, degrees of commitment and learning styles — is, “What skills will help me become a pastry chef, and how can I best position myself to acquire those skills?”

Acquiring Technical Proficiency and Functional Skills
Chef Missy’s answer to the skills question is resolute.

“I would always suggest culinary school,” she says. “It expands your knowledge about ingredients and ingredient function, and helps you develop a necessary vocabulary for a career in the business.”

“You get to be with a group of like-minded people,” adds Chef Jϋrgen. To his mind, “being in a professional kitchen with other people, having the right equipment, and learning how things are done properly by somebody who's really good at what they do” is important, whether or not becoming a full-time pastry chef is your ultimate goal.

Chef Michelle puts it this way: “ICE was a huge stepping stone for me, both technically and personally. It prepared me for life in professional kitchens.”

“The lessons I honed at ICE,” she says, “have been foundational in my career.”

Honing Skills Through Application and Repetition
Attending culinary school is one way to hone your skills. At ICE, professional skills are acquired, refined and strengthened in modules designed to reinforce foundational concepts over time.

Each module includes several classes that occur over the course of weeks to months, depending on class frequency and program duration.

Professional pastry and baking program modules include:

• Introduction to baking arts: techniques and ingredients
• Breads and other yeast-raised doughs
• Pastry doughs
• Cakes fillings and icings
• Chocolate confections
• Cake decorating

James Beard Award-winning Pastry Chef and ICE alum Stephen Durfee says this curriculum provided a “solid foundation in classic techniques.”

“The skills I learned were timeless, and they still serve me today,” he says.

Mentorship & Networking
Additional benefits of attending pastry and baking school include building relationships with instructors, developing a professional network of fellow students, and leveraging volunteer opportunities with industry leaders.

A good example of the latter is ICE LA’s hosting of the first Wagyu certification course held in California. Here, select students worked alongside Chef Adam Perry Lang and Chef Tony Esnault of Michelin-starred Knife Pleat.

Similarly, students at ICE New York volunteered at the annual NY Food & Wine Festival; enjoyed conversations with ICE alumni and James Beard Award nominees Chefs Sohui Kim and Shenarri Freeman; and attended panels with speakers Tom Colicchio, Andrew Zimmern, and Gail Simmons (also an ICE alum).  

As to building a network of fellow students, ICE Health-Centered Culinary Arts alum Jason Forello considers it one of culinary school’s biggest selling points. As the food stylist on the set of Netflix’s hit film “Nonnas,” he hired three ICE grads as support stylists.

“It was such a benefit to work with [people] I trust and know,” he said. “We were like a good back court on a basketball team.”

Chef Stephen highlights the mentorship aspect of formal pastry training. “My instructor, Nick Malgieri, was incredibly influential,” he says. “He introduced me to chocolate-making, and his passion for the craft inspired me to pursue it as a specialty. To this day, I carry those lessons with me.”

Gaining IRL Work Experience 
Whatever training path to becoming a pastry chef you choose — whether learning on the fly or attaining formal education — real-world experience is essential… obviously.

Forgoing culinary school means acquiring foundational skills in the workplace. Like all considerations, this has its pros and cons. Pro: No tuition. Con: In many cases, it takes longer to progress from pastry cook to pastry chef (because you’re learning the basics and building a professional network as you go).  

Attending culinary school, on the other hand, provides instruction in the foundational skills used in professional kitchens. This instruction is enhanced by externships that sometimes pave the way to employment.  

“One of my externships stands out,” says Chef Michelle. “I cooked in Umbria, Italy, with one of my instructors … It was an immersive experience, from picking produce in her backyard to preparing service. It showed me a different side of food and hospitality that stuck with me.”

Seeking Unique Career Paths & Professional Opps
After their externships, pastry school alumni often explore several roles before settling into a professional lane.

“I really learned what I liked and what I didn't like about certain jobs,” says Chef Jϋrgen, “or the way certain kitchens were set up.”

At ICE, Career Services counselors support this exploration and help graduates chart their professional paths by connecting them with job opportunities in relevant sectors, from restaurants and retail, to education and entrepreneurship. (This is a “forever perk,” btw. ICE Career Services are available to assist alumni throughout their professional careers.)  

Noting that lifelong learning is a hallmark of becoming a top tier pastry chef, Chef Jϋrgen advises students learn and absorb as much as they can, both inside and outside of their field. The latter, he explains, guides the former.

“Try to learn everything you can. Never stop learning,” he says. “The more we learn… the better it makes us.”