Students work in a pastry and baking class

Pastry & Baking Arts and Management Associate Degree Program

Earn an associate degree in 14 months with ICE's Pastry & Baking Arts and Management program.

Diploma Program

Pastry & Baking Arts and Management Degree Program

Pursue your culinary ambitions with an education that combines hands-on baking fundamentals in the kitchen classroom with management training at our Los Angeles campus and general education courses online on your own schedule. Our new hybrid associate degree program features the Institute of Culinary Education's reputable pastry & baking career training, instructor expertise, convenient class schedules and established network in the industry. You'll get hands-on training in professionally equipped kitchens with quality ingredients, have access to the learning resource center on campus, and experience real-world work at a food business on an externship.

Our program consists of Pastry & Baking Arts, Restaurant & Culinary Management and applied general education courses.

Request Information.

Quick Facts

Program Duration: 14 months

Class Times: morning, afternoon or evening and online

Tuition, Fees & Charges: $49,210

Open House: May 19th, 2023

Register Here

Pastry & Baking Arts

In no other field of the food industry do art and technique combine so beautifully as in pastry and baking. Your hands-on education starts with our pastry chef-instructors, who will guide you through the crucial components of the baking craft. You'll cover a wide range of pastries and begin with a comprehensive exploration and tasting of ingredients to learn how flavors and textures combine. Over the course of the baking school program, you'll experience lessons with multiple chef-instructors, exposing you to a variety of mentors with different perspectives and areas of expertise in the pastry arts. In addition, with a strong emphasis on theory, our pastry school curriculum will teach students the essential techniques of cakes and chocolate, highlighting the key ratios and methods that allow you to go beyond recipes and create your own formulas. Our pastry school program will show you how to decorate cakes by hand until inscriptions and piping become second nature. Ultimately, students have the opportunity to apply these skills and create tiered cakes of their own design. Chocolate confections are also part of the curriculum, from the simple truffle to intricate showpieces.

A Restaurant & Culinary Management class at ICE's Los Angeles campus

Culinary Management

ICE’s Restaurant & Culinary Management program offers pragmatic training in restaurant management, operations and entrepreneurship. Our experienced instructors will teach you how to develop profitable concepts, write a business plan and market your venture to a target audience. You'll get a sense of how to troubleshoot bakery, restaurant and bar management issues concerning operations and staffing, analyze changing trends and make fiscal modifications to keep a business profitable. You'll train to make strategic business decisions with case studies, role-playing and group projects; have a chance to gain valuable professional insights from prominent guest lecturers; and study menu design, social media marketing, kitchen and interior design, and wine tasting and appreciation.

A student studies on a laptop

Applied General Education Online Classes

Students take online courses that are relevant to restaurant industry careers, such as the history and culture of food, social psychology, business communication, leadership, change management and more. You'll study subjects as they apply to the business of foodservice, including written and verbal communication strategies as they relate to recipe writing, reviewing, food blogging and culinary demonstrations; team building through developing and empowering people; and nutrition in terms of dietary preferences and the relationship between diet, health and disease.

Freshly baked bread cools on speed racks

Externships Jump Start Your Culinary Arts Career

After 400 hours of careful instruction and practice in our pastry arts program, you are ready for the exam that matters: working in a professional kitchen or bakery. Through our externship program, you will spend 210 hours on-site in a restaurant, bakery, hotel, catering kitchen or other culinary enterprise. With myriad options available, we pride ourselves on the diversity and caliber of our professional network. You will put your pastry arts skills to work in real time in an actual kitchen outside of the classroom walls. Best of all, these externships frequently turn into job offers and provide you with invaluable contacts among professional pastry chefs and bakers for the rest of your career. You will live the excitement of pursuing your dream. Your externship and our Career Services will help you explore careers inside and outside the kitchen.

Pastry & Baking Arts Associate Degree

Program Highlights

Pastry & Baking Arts

  • Study fundamental pastry and baking techniques including cake decorating, paring, poaching, roasting, macerating, drying and candying.
  • Identification and discussion of the essential baking ingredient groups and their uses in pastries and baked goods.
  • Review the essentials of bread-making, pastry doughs and yeast-raised doughs.
  • Train in the art of baking through theory, technique, palate development, speed and teamwork.
  • Work with chocolate confections through instruction on theory, tempering and production.
  • Discover the theory and techniques, both fundamental and advanced, involved in cake-making. 
  • Prepare and decorate detailed tiered cakes. 

Restaurant & Culinary Management

  • Explore the interplay between concept development, menu design, pricing and profitability​.
  • Study the basics of cost control and restaurant accounting, including the development of a business plan.
  • Examine "the people side" of the baking and pastry business as it relates to staff supervision and service management.

General Education and Career Development

  • Develop written and verbal communication skills as they relate to recipe writing, reviewing, food blogging and culinary arts demonstrations. ​​
  • Explore the interconnections between cuisine, historical events and international locations, and the growth of America's culinary culture. ​​
  • Connect personal, professional and financial goals to examine how they contribute to career and personal success, as well as the ​​importance of leadership and team-building. ​
  • Study the basics of nutrition and the relationship between diet, health, nutrients and how a culinary professional can use this knowledge in their baking career.

This 60-credit hybrid program leads to an Associate Degree in Occupational Studies (AOS) and is composed of:

  • 23 credits in Pastry and Baking Arts, offered on campus (except externship which is at a food service site).
  • 21 credits in Culinary Management, offered on campus.
  • 16 credits in applied general education, offered online.

Baking and Pastry Arts program duration varies according to the schedule option selected. The length of time normally required for completion of each schedule option is determined by calculating the average number of weeks including student-free days and holidays. International students should note that this associates degree program qualifies for F-1 visa applications.  

  • Cost: $49,210
  • Start: May 2nd, 2023
  • Morning or afternoon (24 weeks)
  • Five days (20 hours/week)
  • Morning, afternoon or evening (24 weeks)
  • Three days (12 hours/week)
  • Six online courses
  • 17 weeks
  • 9 weeks (40 hours/week)
  • Off-site at a foodservice establishment
  • Baking
  • Restaurant Management
  • Food Media
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Food and Beverage Operations
  • Hospitality
  • Hotel Operations

Tuition, Fees and Charges Include:

  • All food
  • Uniforms
  • Books
  • Knives
  • Pastry Tool Kit
  • Wine Essentials Series
  • Application Fee
  • All Applicable Taxes

Take the Next Step Toward a Baking and Pastry Career

Why Choose ICE

You know it's in you — the ambition to pursue a rewarding career in the bakery and pastry profession. Attending the pastry arts program at our culinary school is one of the best ways to begin the journey. ICE is ready to help you find your culinary voice.

12 Reasons Why You Should Choose ICE.

Resources:

Ready to take your interest in ICE further? Speak to an admissions representative about your personal goals, start your application or download our career brochure so you can access information about our career programs anytime.

Admissions Services

Applying to ICE

ICE Career Brochure

ICE%20plated%20dishes%20and%20bonus%20shots-056-72dpi_375x375.jpgICE’s Career Pastry and Baking Arts Associate Degree program offers students comprehensive training in the art and techniques of a variety of methods as well as comprehensive restaurant management training.

The first eight pastry and baking courses are composed of 100 four-hour lessons taught by expert ICE chef-instructors at ICE’s Los Angeles facility. Students start with a foundation of essential techniques and ingredients and build upon that knowledge to study breads, cakes, chocolate and intricately plated pastries. The Restaurant and Culinary Management program is comprised of nine courses, which provide students with the pragmatic training in restaurant management, operations and entrepreneurship necessary to achieve and sustain long-term success in the culinary industry.

The final course is an off-site externship at a location chosen by the student based on his or her career goals, working with our dedicated Career Services advisors to ensure the right fit.

The program is constructed as follows:

Pastry Chef Zac Young is an ICE Alum

Zac Young

When Zac Young was growing up, his vegan mom rarely baked. His love of cookies meant he had to master making them for himself. Before he ever worked in a kitchen, he worked in the wig department of the Radio City Rockettes. Eventually he followed his passion for sweet treats to ICE. After graduating in 2006, Young went on to work at Bouchon Bakery and Butter. He was the Executive Pastry Chef at the critically acclaimed Flex Mussels where he was responsible for a dessert menu that complimented the almost all seafood menu. In 2010, he was a contestant on Bravo’s first season of Top Chef: Just Desserts. Now, Young heads the pastry team at David Burke Kitchen. He recalls using his time at ICE to experiment with new flavors and techniques to discover his culinary voice.

Read more