Pastry Arts Degree

[Bibbidi]

Anyone on here ever completed a 2 year associates degree program in Pastry Arts? Thinking about going back to school and wanted to see if any Disers had any thoughts. Thanks!

 

[Marionnette]

Anyone on here ever completed a 2 year associates degree program in Pastry Arts? Thinking about going back to school and wanted to see if any Disers had any thoughts. Thanks!

Our friend's daughter is a pastry chef. Well, at least she was. She attended the Phila. Art Institute Culinary Arts School for her associate's degree.

My thoughts:

• It's not cheap to attend and there isn't much in the way of scholarship money.
• You will not walk out of there and into a job as the head pastry chef anywhere. So don't expect to make much in the beginning.
• The hours are demanding. Especially if you are working at a hotel than does weddings. Expect to work in the very early morning and on weekends for your entire career.
• If you have not shadowed a pastry chef, you might want to see about doing that before you spend money on getting your degree. The last thing that you want to find out when you're finished is that you HATE the job.

PS - Friend's daughter now works as a vet tech but still makes amazing cakes and pastry trays for friends and family members. She just won't do it on a professional basis anymore.

 

[Poohbug]

My Nephew has this degree and is currently working as a pastry chef at a Kalahari Resort.

He likes the work and makes enough money to support himself. However, as stated before, the hours are not the best. You must work odd hours and pretty much every weekend. If he has any days off they are in the middle of the week.

I think if it is something you are passionate about-go for it.

 

[Kitzka]

My mom was a pastry chef (stopped because she became legally blind). She got her associates degree from a school in the Boston or Ohio area (sorry i was barely born when it happened). Based on what she has told me she loved the type of work and made and still makes incredible cakes and pastries (her home made croissants are TDF!) She worked for years at either a high end Boston hotel, a local country club and finally at a local hotel in our town outside of Boston. For her as a working mother the "split" shift worked well. She had to be at work at 4 am ish. and would work until 8. My dad was in charge of making sure we were dressed for school and another mother took us to school.

She would make the morning pastries and prepare everything she needed for the dinner crown before she left at 8. She would come home, clean, pick us up from school and by 4 would head back to work for the dinner crowd. Sometimes she would get everything done in the morning and would not go back to work but she had to work EVERY sunday (someone else worked Saturdays) and she either had to work on Christmas day or Thanksgiving (she always choose Thanksgiving as Christmas was a bigger deal for our family).

And because she made desserts for a living she never made them at home . She has to stop when her eye sight go too bad btu i know she enjoyed it. I will say though that the pay was not the best. If my dad hadn't worked there is no way she would have supported herself let alone 2 kids on her salary (she worked for as low as $5 an hour in the 80's at as high as $15 an hour in the 90s before she had to stop.) But she was not guranteed 40 hours every week. from Jan-march she was lucky to get 15 hours a week. and i know the industry is very different now as more and more hotels, resorts and resturants are using frozen partially cooked pastries. so, if she were working now her skills would not be utilized to the same degree. Clearly this is not for all resturants but a lot of places will do this. Funny enough her palate is so refined that she can eat a bite of almost any dessert and tell if it was previously frozen vs being freshly made and put out right away.

Hope that helps.
lara

 

[eliza61]

Our friend's daughter is a pastry chef. Well, at least she was. She attended the Phila. Art Institute Culinary Arts School for her associate's degree.

My thoughts:

• It's not cheap to attend and there isn't much in the way of scholarship money.
• You will not walk out of there and into a job as the head pastry chef anywhere. So don't expect to make much in the beginning.
• The hours are demanding. Especially if you are working at a hotel than does weddings. Expect to work in the very early morning and on weekends for your entire career.
• If you have not shadowed a pastry chef, you might want to see about doing that before you spend money on getting your degree. The last thing that you want to find out when you're finished is that you HATE the job.

.

Great list. I went to an open house for PAI and decided to go to the Walnut hill college in Philadelphia.

Op, Pastry chefs is a career much like many in the food services/hospitality arena, you must love it and recognize that "cake bosses" are far and few between.
I'm going to school but this is not my career, in fact it is some thing I've always loved and can do in my retirement. I was raised in a family restaurant and let me tell you, it is not an easy way to make a living.

I've baked semi professionally (meaning, sold cakes and desserts for local customers). Working with John q. public is NOT easy. Brides who want 'william and kate" wedding cakes but they only want to pay 9.99. people who change their mind at the last minute after you've brought 100 dollars worth of supplies, last minute changes, what I call lovelingly the "would it be a problem...." phone calls. on and on.

I love it and it's rewarding but could I do it for a living?

 

[AndreaDM]

My daughter completed 1 year of a 2 year program, then decided to take a break and wait tables for a while. I'm hoping she gets it together and finishes, she really has a gift for baking.

 

[plutolovr]

Great list. I went to an open house for PAI and decided to go to the Walnut hill college in Philadelphia.

Op, Pastry chefs is a career much like many in the food services/hospitality arena, you must love it and recognize that "cake bosses" are far and few between.
I'm going to school but this is not my career, in fact it is some thing I've always loved and can do in my retirement. I was raised in a family restaurant and let me tell you, it is not an easy way to make a living.

I've baked semi professionally (meaning, sold cakes and desserts for local customers). Working with John q. public is NOT easy. Brides who want 'william and kate" wedding cakes but they only want to pay 9.99. people who change their mind at the last minute after you've brought 100 dollars worth of supplies, last minute changes, what I call lovelingly the "would it be a problem...." phone calls. on and on.

I love it and it's rewarding but could I do it for a living?

Small world, I went to what used to be called The Restaurant School, now Walnut Hill College. This was back in 1990. I was valedictorian of our Pastry Arts Class and got a full-time pastry chef job at a small, french restaurant in South Jersey. At the time I had 3 small children and a husband, working 12 hours/day, 6 days/week was not cutting it for our family. I left that job and worked for a small cake shop and I had a blast. Is Chef Waldi still there?

Funny story for you, I was at the Party for the Senses this past Saturday and we were waiting for them to let us in and I was looking through the evening's menu. When I got to the desserts page there was a name on their I recognized, but it was also a somewhat common name. The name was of someone that I went to school with and did my apprenticeship with at The Four Seasons. When they let us in I looked for his table and read the nametag and saw that he was from NJ. I then asked if he was the same person I think he was, and he was. We had a nice conversation and it was great to see him again.

 

[Bibbidi]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I am not looking to get rich or become a "cake boss"--mostly I just love baking and have always been in the kitchen in one form or another throughout my life. At this point my goal would be more along the lines of finishing and then working part-time in a private bakery or in a bakery at a high-end gourmet grocery store. I really want to do it more for the personal knowledge, then for the desire to "make it" as a pastry chef. I know the school I'm looking at also has a 1 year Pastry Arts certificate, but that doesn't get into the advanced classes that I'd be interested in taking. My current job is part-time and the money I earn is about enough to pay for my girls dance/piano classes and a vacation each year. If I could earn that same amount baking, I would be happy.