Chef School Review is a guide to chef schools offering education, diplomas, and degree programs (including Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Programs) in cooking and culinary arts.

by Jane Smallman
Chef School Review Columnist

If you are interested in pursuing one of the many baking jobs available in a wide variety of different industries you need to make sure that you get a proper baking training so that you are equipped with the knowledge and skills you will need.

Bakers perform an essential task - they provide us all with our daily bread! Baking jobs can be found in a wide range of different settings. For students with the appropriate baking training, jobs can be found in any of the following types of organizations.

Organizations Typically Offering Baking Jobs:

• Grocery Stores
• Specialty Shops
• Large-scale Bread Manufacturers
• Traditional Small Bakeries
• Cake Shops
• Hot-bread Shops
• Hotels
• Restaurants
• Cafeterias
• Supermarkets
• Cruise Ships

Although the above settings are all different, the baking jobs they offer all involve the same types of tasks and require similar types of baking training.

Typical Tasks Involved in Most Baking Jobs:

• Mixing dough according to recipes provided.


• Inventing and creating recipes for new breads and pastries.


• Measuring, sifting and mixing ingredients.


• Rolling, cutting and shaping dough.


• Supervision of other production workers.


• Decoration of certain baked products (e.g. cakes).

Many bakers start their working life in baking as trainees or apprentices who receive training on the job. An alternative to this route is to go to a baking and pastry school or culinary college and pursue a specific baking qualification. By enrolling in a program like this you will receive training in all the skills and areas of knowledge that are essential to the professional baker.

Typical Subjects Included in a Baking Training Program:

• Basic Cooking


• Nutrition


• Specific Bread-making Skills


• Applied Chemistry


• Health and Safety


• Production Processes


• Operation and Maintenance of Machinery

About the author

Jane Smallman runs a mountain guiding business with her husband. Her early training was in hotel management and she has worked in the hotel industry in France, Holland, the US and the UK. Following this she worked in an administrative capacity for a number of not-for-profit organizations in the UK, including the International Planned Parenthood Federation and the Refugee Legal Centre. While doing this she earned a degree in Social Sciences through distance learning with the Open University. After graduation she progressed to the University of Sussex as a full-time student where she was awarded a Masters Degree in Social and Political Thought.

Sources

• http://www.bls.gov

Posted on March 30, 2005 at 1:05 PM

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