How do I become a pastry cook?

The scent of chocolate in your nostrils and surrounded by sweet treats? The work of the pastry cook sounds tempting. However, if you wish to train as a pastry cook, you must not be afraid of hard work. Discipline and physical strength are required in addition to creativity.

The day starts early for Marc Dierig. The trainee starts his work at 6 a.m. in the pastry shop. It is then decided whether the 23 year old will spend the day in the warm section or the cold section of the pastry shop.

This means, he will either be responsible for baked goods from the oven or for creating and decorating cream cakes, mousse and desserts. Cakes, chocolate, marzipan and desserts in all their various forms — pastry cooks learn to prepare all of these as part of the training. Creativity is a basic requirement here. "Every product from the simple apple strudel to the wedding cake must look appetizing," explains Gerhard Schenk, President of the Association of German Confectioners.

Marc Dierig adds that, in addition to a good eye for detail, you also have to be willing to work hard as sometimes heavy weights need to be carried in the bakery. "Lifting a 25 kg sack of flour or kneading 10 kg of dough is physically hard work." Concentration is also required at all times in his day-to-day work. "Regardless of whether you are decorating an individual cake or shaping 200 small spritz biscuits, if you switch off mentally you make errors and the product is then worthless."

Eva Rothe, from the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), explains that maths is also important when training as a pastry chef as, in most cases, large or varying numbers of units of a specific product are being prepared. You then have to quickly convert all ingredients from the recipe into the quantities required. Interest in chemistry is also useful for understanding the fermentation process, for example. This content is also delivered in the Vocational School as part of the dual education and training as a pastry cook.

According to information from the German Association of Confectioners, trainees earn between €265 and €450 in the first year of training, between €285 and €550 in the second, and between €315 and €650 in the third year of training. The remuneration is determined by the companies and varies according to region and federal state.

Gerhard Schenk advises that anybody considering training as a pastry chef should bear in mind the particular working hours. Public holidays are particularly busy times for pastry chefs and in many companies leave is not permitted.

Gerhard Schenk outlines the various prospects available following completion of the training. As a pastry chef you can take the very traditional route working in a café and, for example, specialising in a particular area such as wedding cakes or chocolate. There are also many pastry chefs who work in the patisserie or the dessert section of a restaurant, a hotel or on a cruise ship.

Paul Ebsen from the Federal Employment Agency explains that due to the wide range of different options available for working as a trained pastry chef, it is difficult to provide information about earnings later on in the career. Young people entering the occupation often start with an approximate gross salary of €2,400 per month. It may however be significantly less.

Dierig is already in no doubt that pastry chef training is the right route for him. "The occupation is a skilled craft in which you are able to make other people happy by giving them something to savour and put a smile on their face — this makes the work really special."