Cooking and confectionery cooking and confectionery. Confectioner - profession

Amazing sweets, never-before-seen confectionery products with an excellent and unforgettable taste, amazing cakes with unique decorations and a sea of ​​taste and visual pleasure - these are the creations of people of a special profession. We are talking about confectioners, or pastry chefs. This is a profession, the representatives of which seem to the kids to be wizards and magicians. But few people know how much work, skills, knowledge and practice it takes to be called a confectioner and create delicious beauty and wonderful products.

Profession pastry chef

There is an opinion that in order to master this specialty, you need to have certain inclinations, talents from birth. And it has a right to exist. If a person feels proportions, memorizes recipes, has excellent taste, then with the help of the necessary education, he will only bring his skills to perfection. And the most important quality of such a person is that he must love to cook and create masterpieces. A pastry chef must be in perfect health. The workplace is a very hot room with high humidity. You constantly have to work at a frantic pace and be on your feet all the time. The confectioner should not suffer from diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, respiratory organs, and he should not be allergic to food products. That is why he has to undergo a medical examination every year.

Education and ranks

As in all professions, performing various training and practical programs during educational courses or refresher courses, a pastry chef has the opportunity to increase his rating up to six digits. What is it for? With the help of categories, you can determine the qualifications and level of skills of a representative of this profession. After graduating from an educational institution (school), a person receives an initial vocational education and the qualification of a “confectioner-technologist” (third or fourth category). But to get a diploma, a knowledge test is required. This opportunity gives industrial practice. The pastry chef must demonstrate what he has achieved during his studies. Levels can be increased in the course of work or qualification courses. For example, if you graduate from the University of Food Technology, you can get the highest grade.

Skills

Cooking sweet desserts is part of such a field of human activity as cooking. The pastry chef is obliged to professionally, correctly and quickly handle working devices: microwave ovens, dough mixers, food processors, electric meat grinders. But still, such a specialist does most of the things manually, for example, he designs confectionery products, creates certain ingredients. In addition, a representative of this profession must have a taste and visual memory, be neat, punctual, responsible and pragmatic, and also have physical endurance, because, as already mentioned, you need to work and make decisions in hot rooms (the pace is very high).

Studying helps to develop these qualities, and after completing an educational institution, practice. A pastry chef must learn many techniques while working, including improvisation. But this skill comes with age and experience. With all the above skills, the confectioner has every chance to take an excellent position in some enterprise for the production of dessert dishes. If there is also a higher education, for example, a graduated university of food production, then it’s generally wonderful!

What knowledge should a representative of this profession have?

The pastry chef must be proficient in the technology of production of products and finished products, thoroughly know the recipe of manufactured delicacies, their calorie content, biological value, terms and conditions of storage of ingredients and finished products, hygiene standards, signs and organoleptic methods for determining the good quality of products, techniques, methods and sequence of performing heat treatment, rules for the sale and distribution of finished products, rules for operating technological equipment, production equipment, tools, utensils, etc.

Where can you work?

Anywhere! The profession of a pastry chef is very much in demand today. You can get a job in a factory or factory for the manufacture of sweets or other confectionery. It is also possible to work in private restaurants, cafeterias, sweet shops. But there are cases, and in our time it happens quite often, that bakers-confectioners open their own cafes, restaurants or shops and run a business for the production and sale of confectionery. In such a profession, the main thing is not only to cook correctly and competently, but also to decorate the manufactured products beautifully and harmoniously. After all, it is this element (design and decoration) that is important for buyers and customers.

What exactly does a chef create?

With his own hands, he makes confectionery, which, depending on his imagination and skills, can take the form of masterpieces of art. Ordinary people do not distinguish between different types of sweets. But these are ordinary people, and every pastry chef knows what types of desserts are divided into. These are products that contain a huge amount of sugar in their composition, have a very pleasant taste and smell. At the same time, they have a very high rate of absorption by the human body. In the manufacture of desserts, flour of various origins, eggs, milk, yeast, sugar, honey, nuts, cocoa and other components are used. Depending on what is used to prepare sweet foods, confectionery products are divided into flour (wheat, corn, rice, oat flour, etc.) and sugary. And even if the product consists of components of both types, all the same, given their role, it is attributed to one or another type. The group of flour sweets includes such as cakes, waffles, cookies, pies, gingerbread and more. The group of sugary delicacies includes a variety of jellies, jams, mousses, creams, grilled meats, marshmallows, soufflés, halva, chocolate and more.

Finally

So, from the article you learned that a pastry chef is a person with physical stamina and excellent health, he knows and knows how to create a sweet or dessert according to the recipe (having previously determined the taste and type of the product), and with the necessary practice, add his own zest to the confectionery product or even correct, improve the recipe for its preparation.

Details

You can definitely answer the question of what a confectioner does, without false modesty - with creative work. The confectioner, of course, is not a musician, but almost an artist who creates masterpieces of culinary art every day. There are even international competitions where the results of culinary creativity are evaluated by expert commissions, awarding prizes and cash prizes to the best of the best.

What makes a pastry chef so fantastic if he can go to an international competition? What does he even do? He creates in the kitchen, turning flour into dough, and dough and other ingredients into cakes, cookies, confectionery, with which we are happy to decorate birthdays and weddings, commemorative events and historical events. In fact, what the confectioner does and what he does is to create delicious and at the same time beautiful culinary masterpieces.

This profession is on a par with other culinary professions, such as: a cook, a technologist, a baker, a bartender, a worker in the manufacture of semi-finished products.

When characterizing the profession "Confectioner", the following features can be distinguished:

1. The sphere of professional activity of a confectioner is serving and producing.
2. According to the typical classification, this profession can be classified as “Man - Artistic Image”, since culinary products are created by the labor of human hands.
3. If we evaluate the profession of a confectioner in terms of working conditions, then the profession will be unusual, because the confectioner works at the cutting table, and at electric ovens, ovens.
4. According to the class, the profession is of a performing nature. The profession sometimes requires the same type of actions, which must be carried out strictly according to the rules, regulations, instructions.

What do confectioners do?

If you keep a description of the profession in a certain sequence, then what the confectioner does fits into several aspects:

• prepares various types of dough according to certain recipes; bakes products;
• prepares fillings;
• decorates the work.

However, only a confectioner of the last qualification category of professional activity can perform all processes.

Specialists of other categories have their own terms of reference.

1. A specialist of the first qualification category (hereinafter, for brevity, the category will correspond to the figure) brings the required ingredients, monitors the operation of the mechanisms, and can get a biscuit from the baking sheet.
2. The confectioner is engaged in the preparation of creams and lubricates the biscuits with the appropriate cream.
3. She bakes simple buns, can prepare fillings and soak sweets with them.
4. Makes cookies, muffins, cakes by hand; prepares creams of different colors.
5. Produces original products (cakes, desserts) under the guidance of a highly qualified specialist.
6. Carries out all complex processes for the manufacture of confectionery products from kneading dough to baking and decorating.

What else does a confectioner do?

The skills and abilities of a confectioner can be described in one short and concise sentence: “Expresses himself and transforms the world around him!” Skeptics will chuckle: "Too much pathos." But after all, from all the pastry shops in the city they choose the one that sparkles with showcases with numerous confectionery products that you want to stand and look at, because they resemble real works of art. So a real confectioner works creatively, is not afraid to experiment, draws, bakes, decorates.

And if you answer the question of what makes a confectioner a scientific language, then it turns out that a confectioner, as a specialist, must be able to perform a number of specific actions, namely:

• Complete the entire process of preparing the dough, bake it and turn it into a culinary product, that is, fill it with cream, decorate;
• After finishing work on the cake, check the resulting weight of the finished product;
• The confectioner must know all the secrets of the equipment;
• Must know everything about all products;
• Decorate the product, embodying a wide variety of ideas and using all kinds of techniques.

A part of the confectioner's soul, his creative potential, must be invested in any culinary product. A real master will never repeat himself in decorating products, he will never make two identical cakes. Everything that is made with love is much tastier and more colorful.

I recall a fairy tale about the Frog Princess, who could bake marvelous bread in one night. Bread was obtained because love for Ivan Tsarevich burned in her soul. And the same wives of the brothers, in whose eyes anger and envy shone, would never have been able to bake exactly such bread, no matter how much they spy on a real master culinary specialist.

So, the confectioner's skills should be very diverse, you can make a huge list, remembering to the smallest detail what the confectioner does. But, like any specialist, there is a “behind the scenes” in the work of a confectioner, which is interesting only for a future culinary specialist to look into. A buyer in a pastry shop or a cafe visitor evaluates the finished product and does not think at all about what processes and in what sequence were performed when creating this delicious cake. Unless, if you don’t want to invite the chef to your table to thank him for the culinary masterpiece and ... ask for the recipe.

And a few more words about what a confectioner does. Someone said that confectioners are cunning people, but “responsible” is better. After all, the confectioner creates and at the same time:

• Suitable for the baking process with all responsibility, so that it turns out delicious.
• Adds sugar, but so that it is sweet in moderation.
• He wants to eat the whole cake, but he remembers how it will turn out.
• He recalls his favorite motives, which he loves to perform himself, so as not to get bored from the routine of work.
• When nothing works out, he sighs and starts all over again.

It implies the creation of confectionery: sweets, desserts, pastries, etc. As a rule, representatives of this profession can be found in expensive restaurants and bakeries. However, sometimes confectioners are people whose business is exclusively related to the sale of confectionery.

The history of confectionery goes back to ancient times. The Maya Indians at one time discovered a recipe for making chocolate, the inhabitants of Ancient India used cane sugar to make sweet sticks, and the ancient Egyptians made sweets from dates. Later in Europe, confectioners began to be among the so-called privileged servants at the courts of royalty and nobility.

It must be said that profession confectioner is a realistic type. This means that its representatives have a penchant for practical work, requiring the use of dexterity and physical strength. Such work does not require communication with people, as well as the formulation and presentation of thoughts.

Responsibilities of the Pastry Chef include: preparation of various types of dough, creams and fillings according to a certain recipe, as well as baking and decorating products.

The profession of a confectioner requires a person the presence of fine taste, good sense of smell, taste memory, as well as creative imagination. Pastry chefs must be well versed in the composition of various products and have all the necessary knowledge on the features of the kitchen equipment.

It should also be emphasized the importance of the eye and hand-eye coordination. Quite often, pieces of cake are cut off by eye or cakes are cut from a large whole layer. In addition, such a profession requires sufficient physical endurance, since you have to work standing up for a very long time at a very high temperature that comes from the furnace. Also, the disadvantages of the profession include the threat of gaining excess weight due to the fact that you have to constantly taste certain products to achieve the desired result.

As for personal qualities, it is worth emphasizing accuracy, developed taste memory and creative approach to business. You can learn to be a confectioner at a technical school, enrolling in the specialty "Confectioner", "Confectioner of sugary products" or "Technology of public catering products".

Separately, it is worth talking about the prospects of this profession. Confectioners usually start their careers in small canteens, restaurants or cafes with a small clientele. However experience gained over time, and you can proceed to the implementation of individual orders for baking cakes and other products. Many pastry chefs work in large hotels and high-level restaurants, and also take part in international competitions. Of course, the wages of such masters are much higher than those of regular employees of ordinary cafes.

It is also necessary to say about the social significance. The profession of a confectioner has been and will be in demand at all times., since people's love for sweets does not at all depend on the economic condition in a country or a particular region. For example, during a period of rising incomes, sales of exclusive confectionery products grow, and during a crisis and economic recession, confectionery products help people cope with depression, due to which they are also very popular.

CONFECTIONER

"Combine pleasant with pleasant - express yourself and transform the world around you!"

A confectioner is a master of making sweets. The skill of preparing delicious delicacies - confectionery - has been valued at all times, and the secrets of the exquisite taste of cakes, sweets and other sweets are always kept in strict confidence. A confectioner is a specialist who has knowledge, skills in the preparation of confectionery products and the technology of this process.
Nowadays, the confectionery industry is experiencing a period of growth, actively mastering new technologies and developments from related areas of culinary.

Features of the profession of a confectioner.
The confectioner prepares various types of dough and fillings, creams and other semi-finished products according to a given recipe, from which he then bakes finished products and decorates them.
A confectioner does a lot by hand - with the help of special tools. For example, decorate cakes with cream.
The skill level of confectioners is determined by categories. Immediately after graduating from college, a pastry chef receives a 3rd or 4th category. But in the process of work it can be increased. The qualification of a confectioner is important in terms of career growth. Agree, it is unlikely that the director will raise an incompetent confectioner and give the green light to further progress in work.

Profession requirements.
If almost everyone can get an education by profession as a confectioner, then not everyone can become a real Master of their craft. Artistic taste, the desire for continuous improvement and education are the necessary features for those who want to reach the top. It is in such cases that opportunities open up to become a professional and create your own masterpiece, which will go down in the annals of culinary art.

Workplace.
Confectioners work in restaurants, cafes, canteens, and confectionery factories. A confectioner can also set up his own business.

Important qualities.
A pastry chef must love to cook. He needs a good memory, including taste, creative imagination, fine taste and smell. Good coordination of movements (at the level of the hands), an eye that reproduces the imagination (the ability, looking at the recipe, to imagine the appearance and taste of the dish), responsibility, honesty.
A confectioner needs physical endurance. In continuous production, you have to work at a high pace, and if there is no automation in production, this means a lot of physical exertion.

Health.
Like a chef, a pastry chef has to work on his feet, often in hot, humid conditions. The profession of a confectioner is not recommended for those who have diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system, food allergies, chronic diseases of the digestive system, respiratory organs, organs of vision, skin with localization on the hands. Infectious, venereal and nervous diseases are absolutely unacceptable. Confectioners regularly undergo medical examinations.

Knowledge and skills.
The confectioner must know: range of manufactured products, their calorie content, biological value, terms and conditions of storage of ingredients and finished products; sanitary and hygienic standards of confectionery production; types of raw materials and their properties; recipe and mode of preparation of confectionery products; device and rules for the use of special equipment. Must understand basic human physiology.
The confectioner must be able: to process raw materials in accordance with their properties, prepare and finish various types of confectionery, decorate cooked dishes, perform many manual operations, use special tools and equipment.

The demand for the profession of confectioner.
The profession of a confectioner is in demand at all times. It is interesting to note that consumption and love for "sweet" practically does not depend on the state of the economy. In times of rising incomes, sales of exclusive products increase, and in times of economic recession, confectioners' products are no less popular, helping to cope with depression. Confectioners are sometimes compared to psychotherapists or healers of human souls. The demand for confectioners is stable and sustainable. In addition to large private and public companies, masters of the "sweet craft" are in demand in small restaurants, cafes and pastry shops.

Confectioner salary.
As for the financial issue of working as a confectioner, here, as in many other specialties, the salary depends primarily on the region of residence of the confectioner, the specifics of the institution in which the confectioner works, as well as the company's policy regarding wages for employees.
In a small restaurant, canteen or coffee shop with a large clientele, the minimum salary for a confectioner is $500-800. A special category is professionals who carry out individual orders, including VIP masters. They work in VIP class hotels or restaurants of the same level, participate in international competitions. Their work is estimated at $1,000 per month or more.

Where they teach.
To work as a confectioner, a secondary vocational education is required, which can be obtained at the GBPOU RK "Yalta Economics and Technology College". For certified confectioners, there are refresher courses where you can raise your rank.

To date, the profession of a confectioner is popular and is considered quite in demand. Confectioners specialize in the craftsmanship of sweets. Thanks to their work, consumers can delight themselves with waffles, cookies, cakes, muffins, chocolate, jelly, ice cream, jams, as well as other types of desserts and pastries.

The preparation of various types of dough, fillings and creams, as well as semi-finished products for subsequent baking, are the duties that the pastry chef implies. A description of the profession, qualities, skills and responsibilities will be given below.

What is the peculiarity of working as a confectioner

The specifics of the profession can be called the fact that a confectioner has to do a significant part of the work with his hands. Often this applies to the manufacture of decorative elements of dishes and decoration of products (cakes, pastries).

Unlike the Pastry Chef, the Sweets Specialist is a craftsman with more versatile skills. The program includes training in cooking soups, appetizers and other culinary delights.

Qualification and ranks

To determine the skill level of confectioners, a division of specialists into six categories was introduced. With an increase in the level, the master acquires additional skills that testify to his professionalism and help him perform more complex tasks.

The characterization of the discharges is as follows:

1. First. At the very beginning of his career, the confectioner is engaged in cutting ready-made biscuits, delivering semi-finished products to workplaces, loading fillings and creams into machines, as well as monitoring the operation of equipment. Increasingly complex tasks can be performed by such a novice only in the presence of masters with extensive experience.
2. Second. The confectioner, who is at this stage of mastering the specialty, is entrusted with the preparation of creams, whipping and coloring them, boiling syrups, cutting biscuits, lubricating them with filling. The preparation of some semi-finished products, placing the dough in the machine, starting and adjusting its operation is also performed by a novice pastry chef. This profession is not easy, so to get each next level, the masters have to pass exams.
3. Third. Having received this qualification, the master can make simple types of confectionery and bakery products, prepare some types of creams, fillings and dough. He is also entrusted with cutting semi-finished products, decorating sweets with fudge or icing.
4. Fourth. At this level, the program of the confectioner's profession involves training masters in the preparation of certain types of rolls, cookies, cakes from all types of raw materials. They can also choose creams in accordance with the dish and prepare individual elements that are part of complex decorations (cakes).
5. Fifth. After receiving this category, the confectioner is assigned additional duties. While still under the supervision of a senior master, he is responsible for the correct course of the process of preparing non-standard cakes ordered individually. Also, the confectioner, whose profession is always inextricably linked with sweets and desserts, gets the opportunity to control the work associated with the manufacture of sweets, can decorate cakes and pastries with complex finishes.
6. Sixth. A professional of this level can handle the production of complex figured highly artistic confectionery. He is able to select the necessary materials in accordance with the color and size, as well as independently prepare the most complex of them. In addition, a confectioner of the sixth category can develop a technology and a recipe for making sweets.

Confectioner (profession): advantages and disadvantages

When choosing a future profession, it is worth carefully weighing all the advantages and costs inherent in it. Chefs and confectioners will always be in demand, as the demand for their services remains consistently high. Improving his skill, the master can build an excellent career and get good money.

For a talented worker in this field, there are many opportunities for self-realization as an employee or as the owner of his own enterprise.

Speaking of such a specialty as a confectioner, whose profession is associated with many dangerous factors, it is worth highlighting the risk of injury and the occurrence of a number of diseases. Masters who spend most of their working day in a standing position are prone to damage to the joints of the legs and spine. The impact on the human body of high temperature and humidity is also unfavorable.

In order to reduce the number of injuries in contact with sharp and hot objects, all chefs and confectioners are instructed in safety precautions both during training and at the place of work.

What qualities should a good confectioner have?

When deciding to start learning the confectionery craft, one should take into account one's predisposition to this particular type of work activity, as well as the compliance of temperament, character and abilities with the requirements that this profession imposes on the master.

To fully master the intricacies of the confectionery craft, you should possess the following qualities:

• developed sense of smell and subtle taste sensations;
• excellent memory, which is useful for remembering ingredients and recipes;
• developed imagination;
• manual dexterity and the ability to quickly switch between different types of work (after all, many processes and operations are performed simultaneously);
• physical endurance.

What does it take to become a virtuoso pastry chef?

The traits listed above, combined with a decent education, will allow you to work successfully in the kitchen. However, in order to go beyond an ordinary confectioner and become a specialist of the highest rank, one cannot do without artistic taste, ingenuity and creativity.

In addition, in the course of his work, the confectioner interacts with members of the team and superiors, so he is expected to be patient, self-possessed, affable, benevolent and communicative. Sloppy, inattentive and negligent workers are not successful in this field of activity.

How to become a confectioner

Many educational institutions offer special programs and courses. Given the demand that the profession of a confectioner has, training quickly begins to bear fruit.

Elementary knowledge is taught in institutions of primary and secondary vocational education. To qualify as a confectionery technologist, you need to enter a higher educational institution. The program that guides teachers in public and private institutions must comply with legally fixed standards.

The Federal State Educational Standard of the confectioner profession regulates the content and process of providing information to students, and also determines the learning outcome in the form of specific skills and abilities of graduates.

Where can a confectioner apply his skills

Having received an education, the master can be accepted into the staff of a bakery, catering establishments (cafe, restaurant, canteen), health camps or sanatoriums. In addition, all educational institutions without exception contain confectioners on staff.

Being a master of confectionery production, you can get a job at a blank factory or a semi-finished products plant.

Steps of the career ladder

Career growth within a particular enterprise is possible for those confectioners who have managerial skills and ambitions. They become shift, shop or production leaders.

For those who want to try their hand at private business, there is the opportunity to open their own confectionery or bakery.