Tag: Culinary Arts

Hints to Becoming a Pastry Chef

If you want to become a pastry chef then you should know by now that it is not an easy road to travel. Here are some hints to help you become a pastry chef:

Examine yourself What do you know about making a pastry chef? In order to asses how much you have to learn to become a pastry chef, you need to learn where you stand. Examining yourself should reveal just how much you should learn and how much you want to learn about making pastry. Try to think about how much you want to become a pastry chef: is your desire enough to help you overcome the obstacles you have to face?

Get help If you want to learn how to become a pastry chef, then you should start looking for help. There are different areas you can turn to. Today, the internet provides people with most information about any topic. Through the internet, you will be able to find out what other people think you need to become a pastry chef. You will be able to explore the different meanings of pastry all over the world.

That’s right: meanings.

Some people may think of pastry as having types however, you should realize that all over the world, pastries do not have types. Instead, they have different interpretations according to culture and geographic location. This means that you will need to get the help of different people in order to even get yourself ready for the task of becoming a pastry chef.

You should also try to get books. Many people underestimate the capacity of books to impart knowledge but you should remember that you need every resource you can get in order to become a pastry chef. Besides, not every type of information can be found on the internet.

Train Every pastry chef has trained. What else are you going to do with all the information that you have gathered? In order to become a pastry chef, you need to either enroll in a baking class or apprentice yourself to an experienced pastry chef. Becoming a pastry chef is actually cheaper than training in other culinary arts, at least in terms of tuition.

What you need to understand, though, is that becoming a pastry chef mostly involves science. This is because precise measurements are needed to produce great pastry. It is also true that since pastries are usually made in batches, you need to make sure that each piece of the batch tastes the same with the others. This would make sure that the people eating the pastries would not be disappointed. You need to train your skills in order to truly master the science.

Improve and Innovate Of course, in order to become a pastry chef, you also need to understand the fact that there is art in it. People will get sick of eating the same type of pastry over and over again. You need to find ways to make your creations different. You can be subtle, you can be bold, but you have to be different! This is what it truly means to become a pastry chef. You should never be complacent that you have reached your peak. You need to constantly improve your skills in order to improve your creations.

Education as a Requirement to Become a Chef

How does one become a chef? Many people have asked these and each may have different answers to offer.

A chef is the overseer of all the activities in a kitchen. He is the person that prepares, innovates and cooks food professionally. There are various types of chef careers that one could try looking into. But each has its own requirement. But central among them is- the love for food.

Without the capacity to create and innovate recipes, chefs would be turned into mere cooks. But even the cooks could be called chef if he is working professionally and he is the only one working in the kitchen since basically, chef is the French term for a chief. Thus, the chef in any kitchen is just the manager of every business occurring in it.

So, what are the paths towards becoming a chef?

Well, many would tell you to get educated in the industry of kitchen, garlic and Caesars Salad. You could start with a one-year program from a school that offers culinary arts. However, you also have the choice to enroll for a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts. Which ever way, your only real hope is to have a break or you might end up preparing gravies.

In formal education, you could further have options. Among the many are apprenticeship and institutional training. The latter delves deeper on study program while apprenticeship helps students learn by observing what and how professional chefs do it while being employed.

Apprenticeship seems to be the best option since it will not incur you to spend as much as with enrolling yourself into an institution. Plus you get the pleasure of observing people do some real great stuff like turning ordinary ingredient into extraordinary meals. Through observation, you will be able to really examine if you the vocation for cooking.

This kind of training will also expose you to the core actions of a chef’s life and give you the real element of hands-on experiences. This would also give you the standpoint between choosing if you truly want to pursue culinary arts as a career.

Any school on culinary arts would be able to help you get formal class studies and application. Be sure to check on the credentials of the instructors and the curriculum. Remember that you’ll be paying cash for them, it’s just proper that you get the other end of the bargain.

Your training and education could be your entry towards a chef’s career. It will arm you with tangible proofs of your proficiency in cooking and preparing food. But still, nothing beats passion on cooking and sheer love for food.

After school you will need to have some years of experiences. You might start as a dishwasher or as a help on the executive chef. You might even have tasks such as preparation of utensils or peeling and cutting ingredients.

But that doesnt matter since all you need is to survive this stage. This must not discourage you from pursuing your course of life. Instead, look at these experiences as extra trainings that will help you find better-paying jobs afterwards. This hard training will hone you more to become resolute in pursuing careers.

After years of dealing with this kind of life, you can now actually move into the real business of a chef. As you move up the ladder, you will take with you the education you earned from formal training and apprenticeship, hardwork and achievement.

Be Inspired, Become a Celebrity Chef!

Whoever in the world does not appreciate a well-cooked food? Do you know that those cuisines that you have fallen in love with in the fancy restaurants are prepared and cooked by the well-equipped chefs? It feels utterly significant to you that people appreciate and in fact love your cooking. Now who has the right to become chefs themselves? Who deserves to enjoy the feeling of being appreciated and revered? Everybody does! And if someone has the talent for cooking, definitely he could officially become a certified chef.

Who ever thought that being in the limelight is all what the celebrities could be good at? There are a lot of celebrities who have other careers to busy themselves with. Many of them have long realized that they could excel in other areas and one of which is in the cooking arena. Yes, many of today’s actors, actresses, and directors are in fact good cooks. They have their own specialties as well. Moreover, some of them have taken the right path and have landed themselves in the reputations of great celebrity chefs. Among them are Julia Child, Alton Brown and Wolfgang Puck.

What are the components of becoming a great celebrity chef? They could be the combination of proper timing, talent, strong personality, dependable education, and the will to excel in the field.

One of the best schools, the CHIC or Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago is aimed at preparing the learners in handling several careers that are related to the culinary arts by the use of the influences on food preparation in the areas of the traditional, Midwest, American, and the European settings. Let us take a look at the celebrated great celebrity chefs of all time.

Julia Child lived in the outskirts of Marseilles and Paris right after the Second World War. It was in this time when she took interest in learning the French culinary arts. She took classes at the Le Cordon Bleu and cooked for her family and friends. Her focus was on mystery meats and casserole so the Americans loved her craft.

Alton Brown basically grew up assisting his grandmother and mother in the kitchen. He found a career as a video director and cinematographer but because of his passion for foods, he came up with a niche to expose his culinary knowledge. Now, he is the host of Good Eats of the Food Network.

Wolfgang Puck is a restaurateur whose name could be spotted in several malls. His Franco-Californian attack on food recipes has definitely warmed the hearts of millions of food lovers. He started mastering the culinary arts at fourteen.

There are great differences between the educations received by these well-known celebrity chefs but they agree at one point and that is in terms of sharing a similar passion and the drive to share that passion to the rest of the world. These great celebrity chefs encourage the budding chefs out there to only believe that they could excel in other aspects of life and that learning could not only be confined in one shell.

Becoming a celebrity chef is not a dream that would be hard to fulfill. Equipped with the right components, attitude, and point of view in life, you could also gain a credible reputation for yourself. It is a matter of faith in yourself!