Valentine's Day is the fourth largest holiday for confectionery purchases, and if you're one of the 47.1 percent of consumers who plan to buy candy for your significant other, the National Association of Confectioners has some advice. According to their survey, chocolate is the sexiest candy to give for Valentine's Day. Women prefer milk chocolate while men lust after specialty chocolate creations like truffles, pralines, and caramels. The popularity of sweets has made candy-making into big business, and if you already love cooking and candy, a confectioner or baker's career may be perfect for you.
Valentine's Day Morsel: The National Association of Confectioners also found that the most romantic place to share chocolate is in front of the fireplace according to both sexes.
Learning Candy Confection Perfection
How can you argue with something that captures the hearts (and pocketbooks) of so many? An excellent way to cash in and indulge your culinary passion is a certificate or degree in baking and pastry arts. A San Francisco bakery owner of 20 years offers the following advice, " If you want to become a high-end pastry chef, get your education at the best school you can afford, apply yourself as intently as you can and don't let anybody tell you that you can't do it."
The baking and pastry arts industry includes a surprising variety of career options for confectioners and bakers:
Other career choices associated with baking and pastry include:
Whatever career option suits your personality, apprenticeships can provide entry-level access to this industry, but if you get a certificate or degree, it can significantly shorten your time in the trenches.
Certified Chocolate Lover
Culinary schools offer Baking and Pastry Arts Certificates at the completion of approximately 30 weeks of study, often including externships that provide critical practical experience. Certificate programs provide hands on instruction in fundamental techniques and basic ingredients including:
- Candy-making, which includes sculpting and molding chocolate and decorations made from poured and pulled sugar
- Yeast and quick breads, puff pastries, fillings, and different types of dough
- Pies and tarts, basic syrups, creams, and icings
These programs also provide essential instruction in nutrition, safety and sanitation, and human resource management.
Two-Years in Baking and Pastry
A two-year Baking and Pastry Arts Associate's Degree program provides instruction in fundamentals similar to those in a certificate program. A student can expect to refine and augment baking and pastry techniques and learn classical baking and pastry styles. Students also study the latest baking and pastry gadgets and technology. Many culinary schools offer exchange programs with schools in other countries and allow students the option to travel abroad and study regional wines and cuisine.
Four Years on a Culinary School Sugar Rush
A four-year Baking and Pastry Arts Bachelor's Degree program builds on a student's earlier education, enhances existing skills, and rounds out their basic culinary knowledge with:
- Food history and traditions
- Marketing and finance
- Interpersonal communication and supervision
- Ethics and management
Culinary schools sponsor seminars that take students to the source, such as local wineries, farms, coffee roasting companies, and chocolatiers. Many have visiting chef programs that give students a once in a lifetime opportunity to receive hands-on instruction from culinary stars.
Salaries for pastry chefs vary widely based on education, experience, and geography. Salary.com estimates that an executive pastry chef can expect to earn, on average, in the mid $50,000 range, and executive pastry chefs in casinos earn considerably more.
Let Them Eat Chocolate Cake
According to White House executive chef, William Yosses, "As restaurants are becoming more chef-oriented, dessert becomes a key factor in their success. Meals are telling an entire story--from appetizer through dessert--with the last course needing to be the most enticing--after all, very few people are actually hungry for dessert." People may not be hungry for dessert, but with culinary encouragement from a creative pastry chef, they'll eat cake--decadent Belgian chocolate truffle cake this Valentine's Day.