How To Command A High Paying Pastry Chef Salary

Ever since you were a child helping your grandmother bake pies and cakes you knew you wanted to work in the kitchen, but you are afraid that a pastry chef salary isn’t enough to live on. You don’t want to live like a pauper, but you want to follow your dreams and need to know how to make it happen. The truth is that the salary level of a pastry chef won’t be the most difficult part of maintaining a career in the culinary arts, there are other aspects that will definitely test you and stress you more than how much money you are making.

The Pastry Chef Career Ladder

That being said, when you first start out you can expect to make a fairly low salary, but that all depends on where you are working and how much experience you bring to the job. If you start out in the culinary world right out of high school with nothing but a diploma you can expect to start at the bottom of the ladder as a prep clerk and your pay is not likely to be much more than minimum wage. Those with more experience, such as a diploma from one of the fine culinary schools of the world, will find more doors open to them as well as higher starting salaries. The job location plays a big role in your starting salary as well. Larger pastry shops pay more than smaller, on average. Jobs in metro areas pay more than those in small towns on average. And jobs in hotels and casinos pay more than those on cruise ships and restaurants, on average.

There are usually two ultimate goals once you get started on your career as a pasty chef. One is to become an executive pastry chef at a famous restaurant, five star hotel or large casino. Executive chefs in these types of positions frequently command salaries of up to $90,000 per year. The other, and possibly more lucrative goal is to open your own patisserie or bake shop where you are in control. A well known upscale bake shop like this can easily make a six figure salary for its owner and also allows for the potential of expansion to several locations later in your career.

How to Get Started as a Pastry Chef

Some smaller shops will let you get your feet wet learning the ropes of baking with nothing more than a high school diploma. If you live in a metropolitan area you may even be able to land a job in a hotel or casino, but in all of these cases you will start at the very bottom and it will be hard work and long hours to build yourself up to positions with more responsibility. And if you have dreams of being a pastry chef or executive pasty chef one day you will almost certainly need some formal training.

To be certain of landing a job you should start with a minimum of a one year certification program or an associates degree. Either of these will be almost certain to land you a position in a good kitchen, whether it is in a hotel, casino, restaurant or cruise ship. What you do from there will be a product of your own drive, determination, baking skills, experience and creativity. Those who aspire to become executive level pastry chefs will most certainly need to take their education to the next level be attending a culinary institute and obtaining a degree in the culinary arts. Le Cordon Bleu is the most famous and prestigious of the culinary institutes and if you have the drive and ambition may be a good fit for you. With campuses around the world it is a great place to get a quality culinary education and more importantly get to know others with the same dreams and ambitions as yourself.

Executive Pastry Chef Responsibilities

While baking is definitely the enjoyable part of a pastry chef’s job, once you move up to the management level you will have many responsibilities and baking will be just a small part of your daily work. An executive pastry chef is responsible for all of the baked goods being prepared, all of the equipment used to prepare them and all of the staff involved in baking or decorating the delicious sweet desserts. Once you reach the level of executive chef you can expect to have the following responsibilities:

• Maintaining adequate levels of ingredients. This means not running out, but also means not ordering too much and having spoiled or stale ingredients
• Working with the executive chef to develop a dessert menu that is compatible with the overall menu and theme of the restaurant
• Pro actively monitoring the condition of your baking equipment and repairing or replacing it as necessary
• Staying within the budget for the patisserie portion of the restaurant and even increasing efficiency and profits
• Overseeing and training all of the baking staff. This could include hiring and firing, discipline and evaluating performance
• Developing, testing and refining new recipes for desserts and baked goods

As you can see, the career of a pastry chef is a diverse and multi-faceted one. While you may start out as a prep clerk doing the most menial tasks with the proper drive and education you could one day be an executive chef in a 5 star hotel or Michelin rated restaurant. Whether you want to manage a kitchen for someone else or start your own small patisserie your experiences and education will play a role in obtaining a high level pastry chef salary, but perhaps more important is your own passion, drive and ambition to excel at all aspects of baking and the culinary arts.