My "First Pastry Job" Blog

[Wendy DeBord]

Beautiful peaches Jeniac! Thanks for posting them. I also use a melon baller to core my apples, I think its much easier and quicker. Just insert into the whole apple, make the circle in the center to grab seeds and pull out. I think the corers leave behind seeds too much....and I can't get them in exactly each time either.

I feel bad for you doing all those apples, it's definately one of my least favorite things to do too. You can buy in frozen apple slices........only problem is you can't get the apple varietys you want.

Feet.....do you have really good shoes? Can you stand on those rubber mats-they do help. Otherwise you might need to see a foot doctor, perhaps your not getting enough arch support or something like that.

[SethG]

After that, I just ran the line for dinner and helped clean up and reorganize.

Dinner?? I sure hope this means your pastry job doesn't require you to be in at some ungodly hour in the morning! (And, by the way, this makes you lucky, right? Don't most pastry chefs come to work at 3 a.m.?)

Please keep the reports coming. They're very entertaining, even to non-professionals.

[celenes]

Yes I agree this has been very interesting reading. I try to keep up on the forum daily. This is my lunchtime reading and when I get home in the evening once I look through mail etc. I settle back and read more.

I am so happy I joined this forum because it also a good educational tool.

Bravo on the peaches, I can only hope to get to that level. I have never worked with mazipan.

I guess I am a wimp right now, I don't use fondant because most of my clients are asking for buttercream, ganache or whipped frostings.

But one day in the near future I will be brave.

[Cusina]

Jen, your blog is fascinating. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Just out of curiosity, what does your signature mean? Paper mache?

[chefpeon]

If we were all Peanuts characters, I most certainly would be "Pig Pen". Well, as far as my clothing is concerned! I work very neatly, keep up with my dishes as best I can, and I wash my hands so much that I'm keeping the Vaseline Intensive Care people in business singlehandedly. Can you say "dry cracked hands?" Yep!

If my place of employment doesn't make me wear one of those STUPID chef jackets, I don't wear one. Actually I just save my nice chefs jacket with my name embroidered on it to wear when I'm consulting with clients. Makes me look all professional and stuff. In the kitchen though, it's another matter. I'm in an old t-shirt, black leggings (so comfy) and a four way apron. My apron and front of my t-shirt is covered with chocolate or food color or whatever dough or batter I happen to be handling. There's usually spots of stuff on the back of my arms that I've missed on one of my frequent handwashing trips. There is splotches of buttercream or whipped cream in my hair that has somehow "splooted" back at me when I burp my pastry bags. Sometimes I have flour on my face and don't know it. People laugh and don't tell me. A lot of times, I'll have a big floury handprint on my butt because I absentmindedly go to wipe my hand on my apron (I know, BAD habit) and I miss and hit the hiney instead. Looks great on black leggings.

I love to wear short sleeve t-shirts.......they're cool, cheap, and the short sleeves are great for when you've got to scrape down a big hobart full of chocolate cake batter. I find chef's jackets to be highly impractical in my line of work.

My sink is at the opposite end of the kitchen too. I don't like running back and forth, so I just fill two buckets and have a towel in each one. The first bucket is my "rinse" bucket, and my second bucket is my sanitizing bucket. Saves me a lot of running around.

I hear you about the "feet" thing. Over 14 years of standing non stop for 8 hours or more takes it's toll. I wear special orthotic arch supports, but the pain at the end of some days can be pretty horrible. I do face some sort of surgery in the near future. And I won't even start to tell you about my carpal tunnel problems.

But I'm loving your blog, Miss Peaches!

Annie

[jeniac42]

Well, I'll preface this entry by saying that I had a White Russian or two at the bar on my way home from work. My job is so close, I can walk there and back - big advantage when the bank's about to repo your car and anyway it has a flat tire, right? So unexpectedly I ran into the owner of the bakery there, and he was very kind and picked up my tab for me. He's a really good guy - expects us to work like dogs but I get the impression he looks out for his employees.

Anyway, today I did no pastry work (aside from the damned 4kg of apples, but more on that later). It was all line stuff; old hat to me now. This place has a very easy menu, very easy prep. Basically I spent all day cleaning, organizing my coolers, and slicing and dicing. We had a big storm and the power went out twice. Always fun to be wielding a knife and have the lights go out, eh?

Today, I tried a new strategy with the apples. I peeled them with my handheld peeler, instead of the windy thingamabob. After the first four or five this was actually faster. Then I cut them in quarters and just used my knife to take out the core part; again, much faster (for me) and much easier on my wrist. I've got burgeoning carpal tunnel anyway and wear a wrist brace sometimes, so anything that helps in that department is double plus good.

Question for those who use the melon baller: What do you do about the blossom end of the apple? Do you just cut to that point and discard the ends? I'll probably go buy a melon baller tomorrow, and I hate to look stupid (must always know what I'm doing; I hate having to ask for help, although I will when it's necessary).

A few replies, now. First, chef jackets: I actually like the things. Sure, they make me sweat my metaphorical balls off, but they also protect my arms from flying grease. And sticking my arm all the way into the big ovens to get the sheet trays out of the back scares the heck out of me, so arm covering is welcome. I've got plenty of burn scars but they're mostly from the hot side, so this whole oven thing is a new and scary burn opportunity. We don't have uniform service there, so I'm going to have to buy a few jackets and wash them myself. Ugh. My t-shirt today has nice black marks from carrying sheet trays waiter-style.

As far as my "level" goes (i.e. doing the peaches): I'm a rank newbie. I haven't ever made buttercream in a professional capacity. I was in charge of desserts at my last restaurant, but there wasn't much technical proficiency involved. Basically, I fabricated a recipe for cookie dough based on percentages from "On Food And Cooking", made bread pudding (anglaise), and made the creme brulées, which I can now do in my sleep. Love custards, but once you figure it out they're not so hard. I can't fill and frost a cake very well; it takes me easily four times as long as the people I work with. Plus it looks like hell. So the marzipan peaches don't really seem a thing to me; mostly they're just good fun.

Shoes: I have Danskos, which are great. They save me a lot of foot pain over other shoes I've worn. I have really high arches, and fairly large feet, and these shoes are great. However, they're almost three years old and I really have got to buy a new pair. Just gotta save up a little from each paycheck. The only complaint I have is the total lack of padding, but I've got calluses the size of Montana. I also try to wear the Thorlo socks when I have a pair clean, and that helps a lot.

And yes, I work from noon until 9 or 10pm, which is kind of a strange schedule for pastry. Mostly I landed the job because I could run the line for dinner (we never get slammed so I just do it myself); they don't usually hire people with no pastry experience, so I feel like I lucked out. That and the reference from a local chocolatier.

I think this post is probably already longer than anyone will read, so I'll go, until I realize I forgot to add something important.

[jeniac42]

Oh, signature. I forget where I got it from; it's some quote from a TV show or web page or commercial or something. Heh.

[Wendy DeBord]

I think this post is probably already longer than anyone will read, so I'll go, until I realize I forgot to add something important.

Na, it's not too long, I read every word. You make me smile... it's fun to read your perspective.

[KarenS]

Peel apples. Cut them all in half. For me it is then three scoops, center, end, end. You can get very fast at this!

[jeniac42]

Saturday was a non-pastry kind of day. I walked in and, because of the farmer's market, there was nobody to tell me what to do, so I just made 50 peaches. Then the other line guy had to leave so I just started prepping and cooking orders. Bleah.

Sunday and Monday are my days off (regular-like!) so nothing there either. I relaxed and packed up stuff at my house a little bit, and not much else.

Today I went in and learned to work the counter up front. It was a nice change of pace, plus it means I get to share in the tips. Woo hoo! The owner there is a really good guy, as far as I can tell. He expects a lot from his employees but seems to actually care about them, which goes a long way in my book.

Anyway, I was supposed to work on cakes today; that would have been a first, professionally. But we were all out of peaches so I did those instead. Unfortunately today was the first half of the assembly, which is a lot less fun than the second half. I ended up working almost 11 hours. I hurt, and am so tired as to be incoherent, so there's not much interesting to report here.

[Enzian]

I've been contemplating a career-change, lately. But, I just turned 30 and I have a wife and two beautiful kids, so the intensity and labor of a culinary job has become a fantasy.

Thank you for writing. I really appreciate it.

[jeniac42]

I was lucky and unlucky. I decided to abandon my old, stable, making-lots-of-money life to pursue culinary arts. I've loved it and regretted it badly. My ex is a "kitchen widow" and my life is a wreck, but hey, I get to bake all day long and get paid for it. Sure, I'm on my feet for 10-12 hours/day, and I am currently soggy from doing dishes, and as AB said "nothing like 400 covers on a Saturday night to make you hate cooking", but in the end I don't hate it. I love it. Why am I here, READING about pastry when that's what I do ALL DAY LONG SHOOT ME NOW?

But seriously, Enzian, for love? Do it at home. Having been cooking professionally for only a year, I've realized that cooking at home is fun, is love. Cooking at work, it's love, but it's also work. I've got my timing down, and even putting out Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people is nothing at all, but it's fun, because if dinner comes out an hour late nobody's going to fire me.

Sorry, I'm having one of those quarter-life crises. I was a computer programmer for five years professionally. I used to love the beauty, the art of the code, and then once it was my job I realized all the politics, making an extra 10 cents a year for the stockholders, is all it's about. I thought food might be different. I started out serving in a place that was very "family" but not terribly culinary. I was frustrated: did nobody care that it was beautiful food? I then moved to a high-volume fine-dining "soul food" place and saw the produce they accepted from vendors. Most of it I'd have passed over at the grocery store, yet the customer didn't seem to care and they were happy to pay 10x what it would've cost them to make at home for the experience.

Now I work at a small-business bakery. People care about the product, and they don't. In the end, you've got to be able to pay your bills and your vendors or it's a vicious circle. So you cut the corners you can, and the thing is, the clients don't know the difference, or are so used to fast food it doesn't matter. My dream is to have a place where I make all my fillings, my marzipan, everything from scratch. But reading these forums, will it be as good as the stuff you can buy from Amoretti or even BakeMark? Why serve seasonal desserts when the majority of your clientele wants to buy pumpkin pie in July?

Sorry. I'm really not as bitter as I sound. Doing dishes for an hour at the end of your shift can really put a bad note on the end of your day, huh?

As far as ye olde job goes, I feel terrible about it. I work hard while I'm there. This is a semi-foreign concept to me; throughout school, I was one of "those people" to whom everything came naturally. I never had to work for anything, and pitied those who did. Now that I'm in a manual-labor field, I have to work hard for everything, and I'm totally not the best person in the place. It's humbling but it's good for me.

Right now I am tempted to go do dishes without clocking in for a few hours, just so somebody else doesn't have to do them when they show up at 5am. At the same time, the part of me that got paid 4-5x as much as I do now is saying, "Are you crazy? Is your time worth nothing?" But I learn, every day, and that's worth a lot.

[celenes]

Good Morning All or Good Afternoon,

Depending on when you read this post.

Jeniac42,

Your posts are very intriguing to me because I can truly relate to what you are saying. I love to cook particularly baking. I work in Corporate right now because it's somewhat safe. (i.e. my mortgage, student loan etc are paid)

I do baking out of my home part-time and have a fairly substantial client base I think. And I am beginning to secure wedding cake orders which is exciting and frighten too.

I have been considering turning in my Corporate paycheck but I can't just walk away just yet until I can prove to my hubby that I won't be endangering our lifestyle. So since I can't do that right now, I'll be content with the way things are running.

I just did a baby shower cake that on yeterday the crowd raved about because it was different than what you purchase at the grocery stores. I made a cradle w royal icing and little candy baby booties, bottles bears etc. And the crowd went crazy. Each time I take a cake in for an event the level of respect I obtain is awesome. So I guess I can't complain.

I would like to enhance my skills as much as possible and maybe when I get closer to retirement I hope to still have the passion and the skill to make beautiful creations and maybe open a small bakery. Who knows maybe I can do it sooner because I am about 30 years away from retiring. Still a youngster

Well, gotta run it's time to get ready to punch the Corporate clock.

Catch you later.

[nightscotsman]

As far as ye olde job goes, I feel terrible about it. I work hard while I'm there. This is a semi-foreign concept to me; throughout school, I was one of "those people" to whom everything came naturally. I never had to work for anything, and pitied those who did. Now that I'm in a manual-labor field, I have to work hard for everything, and I'm totally not the best person in the place. It's humbling but it's good for me.

This rang a bell with me. I was also one of those people who could do well without much effort. Even when I went to pastry school, most of the stuff we did came quite easily. But when you start baking on the job it's a very different story. Some of the items we make are quite difficult and were frustrating and first, but the main challenge is to PRODUCE quickly and cleanly. I feel like I'm always the slowest one (though lately I've noticed that I'm getting faster than the other new guy).

I was just getting to the point were I was feeling more comfortable with the work load when last week one of our team went on vacation. So not only did I have my usual stuff to make, but part of somebody else's as well! I was in a complete panic every day and felt so terrible that I couldn't keep up with everyone else. I really felt like I had let my boss down. I also contemplated coming in early and working off the clock to get a head start. What kills me is that before they hired me and one other guy, they used to crank out the same work load with 3 people every day. I don't know how in the hell they did it.

[Milena]

Wow!

It's so exciting to read this thread. I just recently joined and I'm doing a lot of reading.

It seems like hard work but All in all you seem to be having fun.. it gives me something to look forward to when I finally find an apprenticeship.

Keep us posted!

-Milena

[ludja]

Thanks for this interesting blog, jeniac42. From someone that likes to bake and make desserts it is extremley interesting to 'get an inside scoop'.

I have a special interest in Austrian desserts and Viennese pasty--could you share some of the other items on your bakery's menu?

p.s. The peaches sound very delicious and look lovely and good luck on your next cakes and projects. It will be fun to hear about them.

[chefpeon]

Hey Neil.....

What kills me is that before they hired me and one other guy, they used to crank out the same work load with 3 people every day. I don't know how in the hell they did it.

Maybe they didn't or COULDN'T do it anymore.....and that's why you and the other guy got hired.

I'm betting that before you came on board, there was a burned out pastry cook throwing his apron on the floor and exclaiming....."I quit!"

Annie

[nightscotsman]

Hey Neil.....

What kills me is that before they hired me and one other guy, they used to crank out the same work load with 3 people every day. I don't know how in the hell they did it.

Maybe they didn't or COULDN'T do it anymore.....and that's why you and the other guy got hired.

I'm betting that before you came on board, there was a burned out pastry cook throwing his apron on the floor and exclaiming....."I quit!"

Annie

Oh yeah, I heard there were several. The term "dropping like flies" was used. It's a great place to work, but there are high expectations.

[chefpeon]

Hey Jen!

Ditto ditto ditto what you said......a thousand times over!

Especially this:

But seriously, Enzian, for love? Do it at home. Having been cooking professionally for only a year, I've realized that cooking at home is fun, is love. Cooking at work, it's love, but it's also work. I've got my timing down, and even putting out Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people is nothing at all, but it's fun, because if dinner comes out an hour late nobody's going to fire me.

I always warn all the starry eyed culinary students that they don't know what they're in for.

Or people who want to quit "le corporation" and work in a kitchen......'cause (according to them) "it would be fun." I say to them, "If you are prepared to work as hard as you've ever worked, for the least amount of money you've ever been paid, then MAYBE you'll "make it" in our world."

I was one of those starry eyed culinary students once. Breezed through school. Had a small hint of the type of labor that was involved since my school really did try to tailor their curriculum as close to "real world" as possible.....but you know.....students are fairly sheltered nonetheless.

After I graduated, little did I know the REAL education that was to follow!

I quit a very cushy, benefit laden, vacation-days-out-of-my-butt, high payin' corporate job in 1990 to follow my bliss. I distinctly remember being CONVINCED that I would leave office politics behind when I got into a kitchen job! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Silly silly me!

Office politics BAD.....kitchen politics......WORSE! That was my hardest lesson learned and I tumbled off my blissful pastry cloud but fast!

I have never made even CLOSE to the money I made in "CubicleLand". Not even now. Only twice was offered inclusion into a group medical plan by my employers. Paid vacations.......very rare.

One employer I worked for required that you work 5 years before you were even eligible for ONE WEEK of paid vacation. I didn't even make it 5 years there! I think that was his plan. Bastard!

But here's the thing. In KitchenWorld, I work harder than ever, get paid less than ever, have less time off than ever.....but......in a really weird way......happier than ever. I HATED my corporate job. Hated every stinking minute of it. The time I wasn't there, I spent dreading going back. It was no way to live my life, that's for sure. I figured it would be better to be happy and poor than rich and miserable.

I'm actually sort of glad no one "warned" me that my visions of kitchen utopia were just fantasy.

If they had, I may have backed out and not pursued one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. I really had no idea what I was in for. But now, it's all I know.......it's who I am and what I do. No turning back now.

My feet hurt, my back hurts, my arms hurt, my hands hurt, my eyes hurt, my legs hurt, and my brain hurts.......

but......I'm happy.

And this is why we "Foodies" are downright CRAZY.

Annie

[chromedome]

My feet hurt, my back hurts, my arms hurt, my hands hurt, my eyes hurt, my legs hurt, and my brain hurts.......

but......I'm happy.

And this is why we "Foodies" are downright CRAZY. 

Word.

When I had my little mid-life meltdown a couple of years ago, I came back to one bottom-line notion. I knew it would be crazy hard work; I knew that (graduating at 40) I might not be able to handle it physically in the long term; I knew that it would be a long time (if ever) before I made any kind of reasonable money at it.

But at the end of the day, I'm doing something I enjoy for its own sake. That counts for a lot.

[jeniac42]

Today was cookie-making day. I filled, assembled, and dipped about 3500 cookies. My right hand is numb from all the wrist action that was required. In three days I've worked 31 hours, which isn't much I suppose but my feet hurt so bad I can feel every bone, not to mention all my calluses. I just tried to look at it as good experience with a piping bag, but after six hours that kind of wore off. I didn't even have time to eat today so I'm about to pass out from hunger but am extraordinarily unmotivated to make anything (ran out of the frozen chili and lasagna earlier this week).

The thing is, sometimes while I'm at work I hate my job. I can't wait to get home so I don't have to do it anymore. But now that I'm home, at the end of the day, I realize I do like it. Of course, with all those cookies baking all day long I'm not sure I ever want to eat another pastry again... the smell... ugh. The people I work with are great, though. One guy works from 5:30am until 7:30pm, six days a week. Another guy, older, works the night shift and gets all cross when his table isn't free and he has to wait to work. He's got to be the fastest mofo I've ever seen, though; he can finish four projects in the three hours we're there together. I can learn so much just from watching, and he's close enough to retirement that he doesn't give a rat's patoot about telling me any secret I care to know.

And yeah, I worked in a (very) well-paid office job, three weeks of vacation a year, insurance, the whole nine. I couldn't stand it though, and felt the same way - spent all my time off of work dreading having to go back into work. Now I just dread it when I wake up in the morning and I know I'm going to spend all day putting cookies into boxes. Heh.

I will try to put together a list of the stuff we serve. Right now my brain is starting to protest... need... calories....

[tan319]

My people!!!

So many things said here ring truer then hell, it's almost spooky.

I never had stars in my eyes when I deceided to get into cooking, via a 9 month schooling, part time.

I had already devoted 17+ years to music (started when I was 13) and knew the writing was on the wall, as far as wanting to play it anymore to get the pie in the sky.

Watched a lot of great chefs shows, loved food, restaurants, etc, so thought school would be a good thing.

Studied general cooking, French style, and after graduating, got an apprenticeship at one of the most popular French places in the DC area.

Making more money then I ever had made in my life (still the best paying cooking gig I ever had in my life), with constant raises.

The craziest place I ever worked in my life.

The hardest I had ever worked in my life.

Quit after 6 months when the exec chef punched a cook out during an extremely rough night.

Went back for a year and a half more after a month off. I missed it.

Did some pastry apprenticing too back then.

I learned a lot of basic stuff that I still hold close to me then, not so much technique as mindset, protocol, and what will happen to you if you do do this, or you don't do that.

Learned a whole lot about politics.

Went back to music for 8 or 9 years steady, working on the "other side of the glass"( producing)

And after that started tanking due to upheavals in the 'business', took some time off to work in another great kitchen, this time in NYC, where I had moved, with a well known chef this time in pastry, as that was really what I had always been interested in the most.

A great experience, a lot more civil then I had expected, met some great people.

Came to New Mexico, waited for the music biz to get another life, ended up becoming the pastry chef for a new restaurant.

Since then, I've had probably 5 jobs here at least, once going back to savory work for around 3 months, waiting for something to open up, pastry wise.

Seen a lot of different situations too, good and not so good.

I'm currently dealing with speed issues too, at my French bakery gig, and all I can say, and Neil, you're noticing it already, you just start getting faster.

For me, it's hard to deal with massive amounts of general portioned items.

Doing my own menu as the pastry chef at my restaurant, everything is generally made in preportioned amounts (ie: molds, flexipans, etc.) while in the bakery, a lot more is your eyeball determining the cut, etc. and that's never been my strong suit.

I design my menu to work with my strength's and weakness's, and since I'm my staff, for speed too.

But, I'm getting better, faster and I also like working for some else for a certain amount of time every day, it's making me a better chef at my other gig.

It also makes me realize how lucky I am as a chef at my own place, to not have to worry so much about the bottom line.

Making your own marzipan, filling for Danish, using butter for everything, even making your pastry cream from scratch, in a high volume bakery, I don't know if that's a reality for many people.

Labor costs alone, not to mention keeping your price point affordable for the customer, make this hard for any owner to do.

I'm working with these two French guys who I know over there would have never made brioche with margarine.

Here, we do.

I would be surprised if Neils kitchen uses a mix for anything, unless the chef has decided that it's an improvement on the product.

But that's a luxury that being bankrolled by a casino in Las Vegas, where I would imagine no expense is spared.

And for me, my restaurant situation affords me a mini version of that same luxury.

The best chocolate, everything from scratch, it kills me that a lot of my product tastes better just because of my ingredients.

Not putting anyone down, just speaking about taste, because as Jeniac said, and it is true, a lot of people can't tell the difference, that is, until they have something where that quality just screams it out at them.

I don't know if I'll ever get used to the general lack of good wages ( as in line with experience, etc.), benefits, vacations.

It's pretty wack.

Don't you think all jobs have a dread factor to them?

Annie, now that you're freelance, do you give yourself some time off?

I admit it, I took the bakery gig because the restaurant biz here is so up and down, I need to have something where I can really depend on a certain amount of hours, consistently.

The bakery gig is probably never going to be too slow.

Whereas the restaurant gig's hours are always skewed, last week was very slow, therefore I worked less hours.

I did toy around with going back to school for something, but came to realize that I'm pretty good at two things, have devoted most of my life to them, and I'm either going to do one or the other.

Owners, wack business and lack of perks be damned!

Good luck to all!

Career changers, be warned, you'll never make less money or work harder then you do in the food biz, unless you're extremely lucky.

Edited May 28, 2004 by tan319 (log)

[Milena]

"...happy and poor than rich and miserable." -chefpeon

I think this is the most incouraging thing I've ever heard about making a career change to something I love doing.. thanks for the encouragement chefpeon

-Milena

[jeniac42]

Ludja - since you have a special interest in the Austrian pastries, do you know of any good books? I'm kind of deficient in that area, despite working at an Austrian bakery. Also, do you know what Indianer is, exactly? I mean, I have a recipe for it but I've never heard of it before. What's it normally used for?

Today was another long day, 10 1/2 hours. My feet, as usual, hurt. Mostly I put together peaches (5 hours), finished rum balls (1/2 an hour), cut the damned apples (1 hour), trayed up and bagged breads (30 minutes), and ran the line and cleaned up. The thing that kills me most about restaurant work is the cleanup. Maybe I should switch jobs with the afternoon guy, who never cleans anything and doesn't even put away half the stuff he cooked during the day!

So in that long day, I had perhaps 10 minutes worth of breaks. Most of the pastry-only kids never take breaks. The German kitchen manager works 15 hours a day and I've never seen him stop even for a minute, so it makes me feel bad, but sometimes I just have to get off my feet for five minutes (and, I will admit, get my nicotine levels back to normal). Question: Is this a normal working situation in a bakery? At both of my other restaurant jobs, it was OK to take a ten minute break after eight hours or so. I mean, I know legally I have to be allowed breaks, and I'm sure nobody would have a problem with it, but culturally it just doesn't seem right to take a few minutes.

[tan319]

I know what you mean.

I work 7 hours sraight, no breaks too.

There's always something to do.

Plus, if you have salaried people, it's in their own best interest to work at lightning speed.

And they do!!!