Whether you want to pursue a career as a baker or simply want to make professional-level pastries, there are many skills needed for baking to learn: from basic kneading to exquisitely layered Viennoiserie. In this article, we'll look into the most important baking skills you should learn if you want to be a professional baker.
We'll also look at how you can learn them and how a culinary school degree can help you prepare for a career in baking.
What is baking?
Baking is all about making delicious items such as bread, cookies, pastries, and cakes. Typically, the items are cooked with indirect heat in an oven, but there are lots of different baking techniques. In the culinary arts, there can be a crossover between baking, dessert making, pastry making, and cake decorating.
In many restaurants or cafes, these tasks will often be handled by the same person, though there is a difference between a baker and a pastry chef, which becomes more apparent when you look at larger companies.
Why become a professional baker?
Being a baker can be highly rewarding. Like most chef careers, it allows you to use your creativity and harness your love of excellent food. The culinary world is also an exhilarating and fast-paced environment to work in. If you think you might want to become a culinary professional, read more about the life of a chef.
Benefits of improving baking skills and techniques
The main benefit you will see from improving your cooking and baking skills is being able to create impressive delicacies. Developing more enhanced skills will help if you want to start a career in the baking and pastry arts, such as becoming a professional baker or working in a patisserie.
It will also be essential if you want to start a bakery. Professional baking skills will help you enter the culinary world in an advanced position rather than having to work your way up from entry-level roles.
Rise to every baking occasion
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Types of baking skills and techniques required Things to focus on if you want to become a professional baker are generally split into two categories: hard and soft skills.
Hard skills for a baker are the technical competencies of baking. Soft skills are transferable capabilities that can be helpful in any role you take on, such as organization and managing teams.
Techniques every baker should master
There are numerous techniques every baker needs to learn if they want to become a professional. These include:
Culinary skills
In order to make delectable food and desserts, bakers need to have the following skills:
- Baking: from basic skills to advanced baking techniques, these include how to follow a recipe, how to properly use wet and dry ingredients, and how to produce professional results
- Bread making: it's important to know how to make a wide range of artisan bread if you want to work in some bakery roles. This includes seeded breads, flatbreads, sourdough, and gluten-free breads
- Pastry: an advanced baking skill. There are many different types of pastry, such as shortcrust, choux, and filo, all of which are used in baking
- Desserts: as a baker, you will frequently be required to make desserts, so you’ll need to master cake fillings, glazes, purees, and sauces
- Cake decorating: another vital skill, as you will often be required to make cakes, such as wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and everyday cakes.
- Chocolate work: this can encompass decoration or specialty chocolate with varying concentrations of cacao, the raw material in chocolate
- Presentation: if you want to work in a restaurant as a baker or pastry chef, you'll need to know how to make desserts and pastries look attractive
- Flavor combinations: it's important to know which flavors and seasonings go well together, as this will allow you to adapt recipes and develop your own recipes
- Culinary equipment: you'll need to learn how to use mixers, ovens, measures, blenders, and molds.
Management skills
If you want to become a pastry chef in a position of management, you'll also need skills such as:
- Team leadership: knowing how to lead your team in the kitchen to ensure all tasks are completed properly
- Teamworking: it can be a challenge for everyone to work well together in the busy environment of a professional kitchen, so encouraging cooperation is vital
- Communication: you will need to be able to communicate clearly with other employees, customers, suppliers and departments
- Prioritizing and time management: Baking relies on specific timings, so you need to make sure you manage your time accordingly
- Problem solving: it’s almost inevitable something will go wrong at some point in your baking career, so being able to solve problems as they arise is a great skill to have
General skills
Along with career-specific skills, there are a number of other more general things that will help in a baking career, such as:
- Cost control: keeping on top of ingredient costs is important if you are to continue turning a profit Inventory control: you need to be able to track and manage inventory to make sure you have the right ingredients when you need them
- Recipe management: you should find a system of recipe organization that works well for you
- Food safety: it’s vital to know about hygiene and sanitation when working with any type of food to avoid health risks
- Kitchen safety: kitchens have lots of machinery, knives, and sources of heat, so you need to know how to stay safe in a kitchen
The role of creativity in baking
Creativity is a vital part of baking and any culinary career. All of the most famous pastry chefs are known for their creativity as well as their technical skills.
This can be harder to learn than some of the skills listed above, but you can develop your creativity by exploring the world of baking and expanding your horizons until you develop your own ideas. For many, this is one of the most rewarding aspects of baking.
How to become a baker
If you like the sound of baking as a career and want to become a professional baker, there are a number of things you need to do, such as:
- Gain practical experience by baking as many different items as you can
- Gather real-world experience by working in a restaurant, cafe, bakery or in a professional internship
- Consider professional certifications, such as a culinary arts degree
- Decide what kind of baking and pastry careers appeal to you, whether that's working in a restaurant or starting your own business
- Search for jobs by finding employers that interest you
Pursuing a career in baking through study
If you want to become a successful baker, one of the best routes into the profession is to study for a culinary degree. This will give you the skills to work at a high level.
Our degree programs give you the chance to participate in professional internships, where you can get vital real-world experience in baking in a professional kitchen environment. It's also a wonderful way to acquire the skills you need to start your own bakery business.
Conclusion
There are many skills that are necessary for baking, including essential techniques in food handling, cake decorating, and pastry making. If you want to become a professional baker, you also need to acquire skills needed for baking, such as learning about management and general kitchen skills.
These skills needed for baking can be acquired through a culinary degree, which will give you an excellent start to culinary success.
Photo Credits
Main image: Royalty-free/Image Source via Getty Images
2nd image: Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images
