Baking and Pastry Chef Schools

Bakers and Pastry chefs are in charge of a restaurant's desserts and breads. From fancy high-end desserts to homestyle loafs and a neighborhood bakery, baking and pastry chef schools can teach you all the skills you'll need to succeed.

Some pastry schools go hand in hand with the culinary school and share the majority of the courses and add on a few of their own. Others are completely separate and have their own unique curriculum. Most pastry schools cover the following topics:
  • Making classic pastry doughs like pâte brisée and pâte sucrée
  • Making newer pastry doughs like pâte à choux (cream puff pastry) and pâte feuilletée (puff pastry) for napoléons and palmiers
  • Baking croissants, danish, brioche, and a full range of quick and yeast breads
  • Baking petit fours
  • Baking cakes and decorating cakes, including wedding cakes
  • Making specially a la minute plated restaurant desserts
  • How to blow sugar, spin sugar, and pull sugar to make presentation pieces
  • How to affect, change, and properly use chocolate in a variety of dishes
  • Baking formula theory
Many graduates of a pastry and baking culinary school can begin in entry-level positions at restaurants or catering facilities, including party chef, bakeshop chef, private pastry chef, artisanal bread baker, cruise ship pastry chef and gourmet-store pastry chef.

Many pastry and baking schools also offer paid externships in the Pastry Industry where you will go and do pastry and baking work at respected restaurants and other companies, gaining valuable work experience you can use to find a full time job after you graduate.

Some respected pastry and baking culinary programs are the Culinary Institute of America's Bachelor's Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts, the Connecticut Culinary Institute's Professional Pastry and Baking Program, and the French Culinary Institute's Classic Pastry Arts program.