The Pastry Cook's responsibilities include preparing quality pastry items such as breakfast items, desserts, breads, ice creams, creams, simple syrups, amenities, and others. They are also responsible for minimizing waste and maintaining control to attain forecasted food cost.

Pastry Cook Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real pastry cook resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

  • Manage cold kitchen production for a luxury hotel with a Michelin star restaurant
  • Clean steamers, hot @ cold line.
  • Serve customers ordering at the bistro.
  • Work in dining room during Sunday brunch and buffets serving desserts.
  • Engage in meetings including an annual board presentation of USDA budget.
  • Focuse on maintaining budget while meeting USDA and BSA nutrition requirements.
  • Set up buffets and other stations all while maintaining and taking care of the guests.
  • Design and execute new menus monthly ensuring a fresh and modern take on bistro style food.
  • Participate in food, beverage and wine weekly training to gain and update food and beverage knowledge.
  • Adjust thermostat controls to regulate temperature of ovens, broilers, grills, roasters and steam kettles.
  • General kitchen maintenance and repairs including cleaning cooking surfaces, fryers, floors, sinks, and refrigeration.
  • Clean and maintain machines, including but not limit to freezers, fryers, ovens, and drink coolers.
  • Train under Michelin recognize chefs.
  • Prepare individually make chocolate garnishes for finishing of desserts.
  • Orchestrate and participate in high-volume culinary and pastry banquet plate-ups.

Pastry Cook Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 17% of Pastry Cooks are proficient in Culinary, Cleanliness, and Food Handling. They’re also known for soft skills such as Sense of taste and smell, Dexterity, and Business skills.

We break down the percentage of Pastry Cooks that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Culinary, 17%

    Started in breakfast pastry production upon graduation from Seattle Culinary Academy baking program and ended as assistant pastry chef.

  • Cleanliness, 10%

    Follow cleanliness and sanitation guidelines according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration

  • Food Handling, 10%

    Interpreted and followed appropriate food handling techniques, practices and guidelines

  • Quality Standards, 7%

    Maintained daily quality standards for restaurant plated dessert menu.

  • Fine Dining, 6%

    Produced all pastry items for banquets up to 1,500, as well as for the hotel's fine dining restaurant.

  • Food Safety, 6%

    Managed and trained interns on various kitchen functions, inventory control, time management and food safety.

Some of the skills we found on pastry cook resumes included "culinary," "cleanliness," and "food handling." We have detailed the most important pastry cook responsibilities below.

  • Arguably the most important personality trait for a pastry cook to have happens to be sense of taste and smell. An example from a resume said this about the skill, "cooks must have a keen sense of taste and smell to prepare meals that customers enjoy." Additionally, other resumes have pointed out that pastry cooks can use sense of taste and smell to "assist in creating new menu items and specials in compliance with forbes 4-star and aaa 4-diamond standards. "
  • Another commonly found skill for being able to perform pastry cook duties is the following: dexterity. According to a pastry cook resume, "cooks should have excellent hand–eye coordination." Check out this example of how pastry cooks use dexterity: "augmented culinary skills, and gained hands-on business experiences to advance professional career in culinary arts and hospitality. "
  • See the full list of pastry cook skills.

    The three companies that hire the most prestigious pastry cooks are:

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    What Chef/Owners Do

    A Chef/Owner is the owner of a restaurant who also manages the restaurant's kitchen through coordinating the food preparation team, deciding what dishes to serve, and adjusting orders to meet guests' requests. They also prepare budgets, manage and implement new menus and operational ideas.

    In this section, we take a look at the annual salaries of other professions. Take chef/owner for example. On average, the chef/owners annual salary is $10,341 higher than what pastry cooks make on average every year.

    Even though pastry cooks and chef/owners have vast differences in their careers, a few of the skills required to do both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require fine dining, food safety, and kitchen equipment in the day-to-day roles.

    These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. A pastry cook responsibility is more likely to require skills like "culinary," "cleanliness," "food handling," and "quality standards." Whereas a chef/owner requires skills like "cuisine," "payroll," "event planning," and "bistro." Just by understanding these different skills you can see how different these careers are.

    On average, chef/owners reach similar levels of education than pastry cooks. Chef/owners are 2.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

    What Are The Duties Of a Food Service Associate?

    A food service associate performs fundamental functions in the food industry. Food service associates prepare and serve food items. They cater to special events, which involve facility preparation, food presentation maintenance, and setting up tables. Their duties include cleaning preparation and service equipment. They restock the work stations for the essential supplies. The skills they need to perform their job include customer service, teamwork, work with diverse cultural, ethnic, and academic backgrounds, and learn safety and health regulations.

    The next role we're going to look at is the food service associate profession. Typically, this position earns a lower pay. In fact, they earn a $3,216 lower salary than pastry cooks per year.

    While the salary may be different for these job positions, there is one similarity and that's a few of the skills needed to perform certain duties. We used info from lots of resumes to find that both pastry cooks and food service associates are known to have skills such as "culinary," "cleanliness," and "food handling. "

    While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that pastry cook responsibilities requires skills like "food safety," "wine," "banquet events," and "executive pastry chef." But a food service associate might use skills, such as, "patients," "excellent interpersonal," "math," and "basic math."

    On average, food service associates earn a lower salary than pastry cooks. There are industries that support higher salaries in each profession respectively. Interestingly enough, food service associates earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $33,477. Whereas, pastry cooks have higher paychecks in the hospitality industry where they earn an average of $36,443.

    On the topic of education, food service associates earn similar levels of education than pastry cooks. In general, they're 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    How a Chef Compares

    A chef is the master of the kitchen-someone who is creative and innovative with food. Chefs are the pride and reputation of each restaurant or dining establishments. They make sure every meal served is fresh and oversees the kitchen operation. They also create recipes, study menus, and prepare significant-high-quality dishes that represent the restaurant. They say academic requirements aren't needed, but anyone who has a passion for food and cooking can be a chef.

    Let's now take a look at the chef profession. On average, these workers make higher salaries than pastry cooks with a $11,966 difference per year.

    Using pastry cooks and chefs resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "culinary," "cleanliness," and "food handling," but the other skills required are very different.

    As mentioned, these two careers differ between other skills that are required for performing the work exceedingly well. For example, gathering from pastry cooks resumes, they are more likely to have skills like "food safety," "wine," "banquet events," and "executive pastry chef." But a chef might have skills like "food service," "kitchen operations," "quality food," and "chefs."

    Chefs make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $46,349. Whereas pastry cooks are paid the highest salary in the hospitality industry with the average being $36,443.

    Chefs are known to earn similar educational levels when compared to pastry cooks. Additionally, they're 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    Description Of a Chef De Cuisine

    A chef de cuisine, also known as an executive chef, oversees a kitchen's daily operations in public and private establishments to ensure food quality and efficient services. Their duties require cooking and leadership skills because they involve leading menu development and meal preparation, coordinating staff, delegating responsibilities, selecting and sourcing ingredients, and handling customer issues and concerns promptly and professionally. Moreover, a chef de cuisine leads and empowers staff to reach the kitchen's daily goals while implementing health standards and regulations.

    Now, we'll look at chef de cuisines, who generally average a higher pay when compared to pastry cooks annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $17,068 per year.

    According to resumes from both pastry cooks and chef de cuisines, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "culinary," "cleanliness," and "food handling. "

    While some skills are shared by these professions, there are some differences to note. "banquet events," "executive pastry chef," "food products," and "pastry production" are skills that have shown up on pastry cooks resumes. Additionally, chef de cuisine uses skills like kitchen operations, food service, guest satisfaction, and sous chefs on their resumes.

    Now, let's take a closer look at the financials in each career. The hospitality industry tends to pay more for chef de cuisines with an average of $53,893. While the highest pastry cook annual salary comes from the hospitality industry.

    Chef de cuisines reach similar levels of education when compared to pastry cooks. The difference is that they're 1.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree more, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.