Having one of the oldest professions in the world, which probably started before recorded history and with the first know bread-making being in Egypt around 10,000 B.C, today’s modern pastry chef is a true “Artisan”.  A craftsman working with the dedication and attributes associated with any artist, applying an immense knowledge of food science, chemistry, and carefully selected ingredients with a great deal of accuracy, creativity and a steady hand is what makes a pastry chef today.
 
In a world of high pressures and a need to climb the ladder quickly for increased salary and benefits, skills have been forgotten and with a diminishing education, or a shift towards another profession to give oneself a better status, pastry chefs have become a dieing breed.  Demand now outweighs the availability; a result is shortage of good pastry chefs in the industry all over the world.  Many companies are opting for less skilled or qualified candidates and also resorting to buying ready-made products from the local suppliers.

A Pastry Chef is a specialised chef, with a department that has probably more outlets, more “inside sections” than any other department.  These other “inside sections” can be taken too great depths, so great are these depths that the pastry chef has the pleasure to venture into the somewhat unknown. The unknown being only available to those who have a sound knowledge of that particular “inside section”.  These “inside sections” such as ice cream, sorbets, petites fours, chocolate pralines, cake sponges, cookies, gateaux, plated desserts, breads, etc and not forgetting the special skills required for creating centre pieces from boiled sugar, chocolate, marzipan and bread as well as those truly memorable wedding and celebration cakes.

Only when a pastry chef has a sound knowledge and understanding is proficiently skilled in all these areas or “inside sections” is he or she truly a qualified PASTRY CHEF.

Author: Martin Chiffers,
ã PastryChef.info 2005