Trained in the art of making pastries, desserts, bread, and other delectable baked goods, a pastry chef is an essential employee in a bakery. There are all sorts of food businesses that need to hire pastry chefs including restaurants, catering companies, grocery stores, and bistros.
The pastry chef in a professional kitchen typically manages a smaller team of bakers in training in addition to serving as quality assurance before product is put in a display case or delivered to customers. In smaller kitchens with less staff, this person could be the head-baker, pan washer, and pretty much every hat in the bakery. A pastry chef creates cakes, pastries, pies, candies, chocolates, custards, ice cream, and bread, among other things, as well as ordering the required stock, keeping inventory, dealing with the wholesalers, and developing exciting new recipes for customers.
Would you hire one of these guys?
Characteristics of top pastry chefs include attention to detail and formal training like a baking and pastry arts or culinary arts degree. But this is not always a requirement and many entry-level pastry chefs get on the job training or were self taught.
If you plan to hire a new pastry chef, but don’t want to go through all the hassle of writing out a long and complex job description, I’ve got you covered. You can use this pastry chef job description to post on job websites and attract your next rock-star employee.
Fresh baked bread.
Introduction
The pastry chef’s responsibilities might include creating the cakes and pastries. In addition to baking there are a variety of administrative tasks that comes along with the role, including ordering supplies like flour, sugar, and frosting. The role could also include trouble-shooting baking equipment, training in new hires, cleaning the kitchen, and of course providing exceptional customer service.
Without a pastry chef, a restaurant would not be able to put out cakes, fresh bread, custards, and other delicious treats for desserts. But as you can see there’s much more that goes into this role than the baking part.
Job Description Summary
The best way to begin any job ad is to start with a summary of your business and what you are looking for in an employee. Here is a professional job description example for a pastry chef.
“The renowned Brioche Restaurant, a premiere establishment in the heart of the city with a wide-ranging menu of delightful freshly-cooked dishes and entrees, is one of the most popular restaurants in the city, with a well-earned reputation for fine cuisine, excellent service, and a refined experience.
We now have an opening for a Pastry Chef for our pastry station, responsible for a small but professional team of pastry chefs and bakers. Applicants should have good management skills, understand the inner workings of a professional kitchen, and be able to manage ordering, inventory, and stock control to ensure that the menu requirements are consistently met.”
At this stage, only the basic details are given, drawing the applicants in to read on and learn more about the role. Similar to marketing, its essential to draw the applicants to the main body of your position with an enticing introduction.
Primary Responsibilities
You always want to be clear on the full list of responsibilities of a job. You want someone that is clear on what the day-to-day duties will be.
- Able to develop, design, or creates new ideas and items for Pastry Kitchen
- Able to produce all baked goods including but not limited to artisan breads and rolls, muffins, laminated Danish, laminated croissants and doughnuts etc.
- Assists in determining how food should be presented and creates decorative food displays
- Checks the quality of raw and cooked food products to ensure that standards are met
- Coordinates activities of cooks and workers engaged in food preparation
- Create new and exciting desserts to renew menus and engage the interest of customers
- Decorate pastries and desserts using different types of icings, toppings etc. and ensure the food presentation will be beautiful and exciting
Related Reading: Head Chef Job Description Sample: Copy, Paste and Edit for Free
- Ensure compliance with food hygiene and Health and Safety standards.
- Follows proper handling and right temperature of all food products.
- Maintain a lean and orderly cooking station and adhere to health and safety standards.
- Maintains cleanliness and organization in all work areas.
- Manages all day-to-day operations of the pastry and bakery section of the kitchen.
- Monitor stock for baking ingredients such as flour, sugar etc. and make appropriate orders within budget.
- Operate and maintain all department equipment and report malfunctions.
- Prepare a wide variety of goods such as cakes, cookies, pies, bread etc. following traditional and modern recipes
- Supervise and coordinate all pastry and dessert preparation / presentation
This is not an all-inclusive list of the primary responsibilities. You can edit or add to this list to suit the needs of your business.
Desired Skills / Role Requirements
This is the section where you can let the applicants know what qualifications, experience, and skills you feel are important for a pastry chef position.
- Two or more years of experience working in the food industry.
- Applicable knowledge of baking with ingredient limitations (pastries that are gluten free, sugarless etc.).
- Certificate in culinary arts, pastry-making, baking or relevant field.
- Creative ability with artistic skill in decorating cakes and other desserts.
- Excellent organizational and time management skills.
- Flexible about working hours, including weekends and evenings, when necessary.
- Great attention to detail and creativity.
- Great interpersonal and leadership skills.
- In depth knowledge of sanitation principles, food preparation and baking techniques and nutrition.
- Previous working experience as Pastry Chef.
- Strong passion for the art of food design.
- Working knowledge of baking techniques and the pastry-making process.
Sample Job Description Template
To help get a job ad live and spend less time thinking about what you should include, here is a sample template that you can copy and use for a pastry chef job description.
The Brioche Loaf Restaurant – Experienced/Qualified Pastry Chef required
As a premiere restaurant in the heart of the city, The Brioche Loaf is the place to be for that refined dining experience, the finest foods and cuisines, and the best in service. Our exciting and varied menu covers a delightfully complex range of cuisines to suit almost any palate, and our specialist breads are the talk of the town. We firmly believe that our customers deserve the very best.
We are now looking for a new pastry chef for our pastry, bread, and dessert station, who will be able to manage the requirements and continue to produce pastries and desserts to the highest quality. As well as being able to produce exciting new and favored recipes for our dessert menu, the successful applicant will be knowledgeable in all aspects of food handling and preparation, creative and adventurous in new styles, designs, and recipes, and be able to manage the day-to-day operations of our busy pastry station.
You will need to become an expert on our current pastry, bread, and dessert menu, as well as be expected to come up with new and exciting ideas to add to our popular menu items, and satisfy customer expectations.
Responsibilities:
Here is a sample list of responsibilities for a pastry chef.
- Able to develop, design, or creates new ideas and items for bakery.
- Able to produce all baked goods including but not limited to artisan breads and rolls, muffins, laminated Danish, laminated croissants and doughnuts etc.
- Assists in determining how food should be presented and creates decorative food displays.
- Checks the quality of raw and cooked food products to ensure that standards are met.
- Coordinates activities of cooks and workers engaged in food preparation.
- Create new and exciting desserts to renew menus and engage the interest of customers.
- Decorate pastries and desserts using different types of icings, toppings etc. and ensure the food presentation will be beautiful and exciting.
- Ensure compliance with food hygiene and Health and Safety standards.
- Follows proper handling and right temperature of all food products.
- Maintain a lean and orderly cooking station and adhere to health and safety standards.
- Maintains cleanliness and organization in all work areas.
- Manages all day-to-day operations of the pastry and bakery section of the kitchen.
- Monitor stocks for baking ingredients such as flour, sugar etc. and make appropriate orders within budget.
- Operates and maintains all department equipment and reports malfunctions.
- Prepare a wide variety of goods such as cakes, cookies, pies, bread etc. following traditional and modern recipes.
- Supervise and coordinate all pastry and dessert preparation and presentation.
Skills and Experience:
We are looking for applicants with the following skills and experience, preferably:
- 2 or more years’ experience working within the food industry
- Applicable knowledge of baking with ingredient limitations (pastries that are gluten free, sugarless etc.)
- Certificate in culinary arts, pastry-making, baking or relevant field
- Creative ability with artistic skill in decorating cakes and other desserts
- Excellent organizational and time management skills
- Flexible about working hours, including weekends and evenings, when necessary
- Great attention to detail and creativity
- Great interpersonal and leadership skills
- In depth knowledge of sanitation principles, food preparation and baking techniques and nutrition
- Previous working experience as Pastry Chef
- Strong passion for the art of food design
- Working knowledge of baking techniques and the pastry-making process
Job Type: Full Time (with Flexible and/or Variable Schedules)
Schedule:
- 10 hour days: Shifts to be arranged.
- 5 working days per week.
- Will include early morning shifts.
Salary rate: From $20.50 per hour, based on experience.
Supplemental Pay: Tips
Benefits:
- Health and Life Insurance
- 401(k)
- 14 days per year Paid Time Off after six months
- Restaurant discounts
- Flexible and/or Variable Work Schedules
- Full equal share of all tips and gratuities
If you think you have what it takes to join this awesome team send your resume with references and cover letter to [insert email address].
Questions to Ask During an Interview for a Pastry Chef
There are always struggles in knowing exactly what to ask in an interview and it can be time-consuming coming up with things to ask prospective employees. Here is a list of questions you can use in an interview by phone, email, or in person.
- What inspired you to become a professional pastry chef? What do you love about your work?
- What training has prepared you for this role?
- The kitchen is a busy, fast-paced, often stressful environment. How do you keep cool under pressure?
- How do you manage your time when the kitchen is busy?
- What do you think would sell well at our bakery?
- What highlights from your training or experience are most relevant for this role?
- Do you have any experience with preparing gluten free (sugar free, vegan, raw) deserts?
- What made you select these sample desserts for this interview?
- What are some of your favorite flavor combinations?
Related Reading: Food and Beverage Manager Job Description (Copy and Paste)
- Is there a specific dessert you would like to see on our menu?
- How do you ensure that the presentation of your cakes is beautiful and exciting?
- How would you react if a customer sent back their dessert?
- What would you do if you accidentally burnt an entire batch of pastries before an important event?
- How would you ensure to always have an appropriate stock of important baking materials, such as different flours, sugar, eggs, etc?
- You will have one or two assistants in this job. These guys will earn a minimum wage, and can struggle with motivation. How do you plan to motivate them?
- How does this position fit into your career goals?
Average Salary and Job Statistics for Pastry Chefs
Are you hiring a pastry chef?
Salary, benefits, and vacation time are an important part of a job description. In order to remain competitive among other local employers you need to compensate employees fairly.
- The average pastry chef in the United States earns around $42,000 a year, based on an hourly income of around $20.63. At the lower end an entry-level pastry chef may only earn $24,000 a year in some markets. High-end establishments may pay $74,000 per year for the most experienced applicants.
- The top ten best paid states for Pastry Chefs in the country include: the District of Columbia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, New York, Alaska, Georgia, Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Hawaii. The lowest-paid state is Kansas.
- Usually, pastry chefs need to study Culinary Arts to degree level before being able to get even entry-level positions, as the craft is highly skilled. An estimated 61% of pastry chefs today hold some form of culinary degree qualification.
- The average age of a Pastry Chef in America is 39 years old with nearly 60% of all pastry chefs identifying as female.
- The US pastry chef workforce is expected to rise by around 11% over the next five years to reach an average of around 120,000 qualified pastry chefs across the country. This means competition for experienced pastry chefs should ramp up over the next half decade.
So there you have it. This is the ideal job description template to advertise an open pastry chef role in the local paper, social media, or job listing website. Don’t forget of course to provide clear information about the compensation and benefits of the role so you avoid wasting time on uninterested applicants.
