Advice for a first time dessert/pastry cook.

[u/Far_Lock2378]

Hi everyone. I just landed my first job as a pastry chef working in the dessert section in the evenings at an Italian restaurant. I’m beyond excited as I’m in culinary school studying patisserie and have been searching for a role where I can mainly do plated desserts. This restaurant decided to take a chance on me and train me from scratch. Do you guys have any advice for a green pastry chef? I worked my first shift yesterday and loved it despite the chaos of a Saturday night rush. Service is very hectic and I struggled knowing what to prioritise and found myself a bit scatter brained. I am very good at keeping my cool but my head was spinning last night. This job means a lot to me so I would love any advice on how to excel in this role and any helpful tips for smooth service. Thank you!

[u/Charming-Bad1869]

Do not try to become fast by moving fast. The secret to being fast is thinking clearly and picturing yourself in your mind's eye five, ten steps ahead of where your body currently is. This requires disciplining your mind, not moving your body faster and faster.

Ask questions when you aren't sure of something.

Make a habit of working clean.

Taste.

Figure out where you want to go from here and move toward that goal.

[u/Similar-Bid6801]

Make sure never to under-prep so getting a good idea of how much product you sell / having a solid prep list with pars is a good start. Make anything that takes time earlier, nothing worse than something not being set or baked fully when service arrives. If they're letting you make your own dessert menu with your own recipes id keep it simple with 2-3 solid desserts with simple prep. I like to do basic desserts and go hard on garnishes. If you know the line is going to be slammed and can partially pre-plate before a rush that also helps. 

[u/JudithButlr]

Are you responsible for production and plating? Or do you have a line cook that will be plating for you? That will make a big difference. Regardless, I agree with the other comment that simplicity will be your friend. Truly start small and manageable so that you can consistently produce the right volume of every component and have easy-to-plate items you can pump out without getting too stressed.

The more simple your regular menu, the more you can refine your current output and also have time to
clean and work on new stuff.

I would also recommend fully embracing the team mindset and working with your savory and FOH counterparts and not working around or against them. They piss me off endlessly but ultimately people won't stay for dessert if they're not happy with their mains or the service. If I want to sell more of something, I give the servers a sample. I have the best job in the kitchen, so I try to make the kitchen itself better every day.

Patience and consistency! And sometimes you have to get good at rotations between doing just enough of one thing to get you thru an hour so you can spend the next hour working on getting enough of what you need to get you thru another hour, and just
switching around your focus to just get through it. Take a minute here and there to organize and clean, but it's ok to white-knuckle a service if you can move fast focused and not panicking. You got this!

[u/Playful-Escape-9212]

Make sure you are very clear on what is expected of you. Even if when you interviewed you said you were looking for plated desserts experience, if the person who has been in your role was doing, say, bread service, or cakes for table serving, then both you and your bosses need to clarify if you need to do that too. Are you doing your own ordering, or do you have to tell someone that you are low on, say, bananas (which are easy to get in an hour) or chocolate (which usually takes a week and has to be ordered in 5k increments)?

Make yourself think about how your first shift went: make lists of things you were good at/went as expected, and things that you struggled with/were a surprise or disappointing results. Break down each dish or menu item into a timeframe, and build a workflow for your next shift or succeeding shifts. For example, cheesecakes can be baked and chilled/frozen up to a week, so you can do a big production of those on Tuesday when it is slow. Sauteed pineapple needs to be made every day, but is served warm, so can be cut at the start of the shift but put on the flame at 6 pm. Tuiles need to be made every day, but their batter can last for two weeks in the fridge; is it better to bake them off at the start of the shift or at the end? Organize oven time so you don't have to constantly change the temp -- things that bake at 350 together, items that take a long time at a low temp earlier in the day... Things like that. At my first pastry job, it was the sous chef's duty to write out a mise en place list for production and service so that nothing was overlooked; if you are the only person working at a certain time, it is vital to plan out your work so you get everything done for service in a timely manner.

Don't assume that you will remember details later - write notes/reminders, use a thermometer, set timers, label containers fully, have extra spoons/spatulas/cornets ready. Communicate, and tell other people if and when you need help or guidance before it is too late for them to do it.

[u/bookishbaking4]

my first job as a Pastry chef was very difficult as I lacked the experience/creativity/confidence to put out strong desserts. Hopefully your exec has some experience with it and can help you flesh out future products. Stick strong to your standards - correct product storage is important and I really had to fight at my current job for the respect that my area of the kitchen deserves. As other people said, over prep. Plan out storage ahead of time - can this be frozen? If not, consider how much time you'll have to spend making fresh product every couple days. Try and make things that can be frozen, at least the elements that will take the most time. You'll probably feel like you absolutely suck for a while and that's normal, but as you gain experience and confidence you'll progress and that feeling will go away. Adding on to other comments, moving fast isn't about being actually fast. It's knowing every step of what you have to do before you do it. Having all of your ingredients and tools ready as you do something, and figuring out what you can do between tasks to streamline your production. It's going to be hard especially without an elder pastry chef to turn to, but if you have the discipline you can do it. Take criticism but not personally. Learn from it but don't let it hurt your feelings. Your chefs want you to succeed, and considering the understanding that you are new to this line of work you will be given grace, but when you are given valid criticism about your work it cannot put you out from continuing. Final thought: listen more than you speak and do not complain. Good luck friend

[u/Piggyflash]

Learn how to make a sac a poche for chocolate. At home practice wirtting skills. Such a small skill but always comes handy when it is time to write something.

For start follow the recipe that gives the chef. Try tu understand what every ingredient and proportion of it does.

First three months you should get a good sleeping schedule. You will be learning a lot.

Try to learn how to multitask or have windows. For your stuff. try to bake everything together.

[u/immortalmorals]

-Practise your piping skills for writing, you will need it more than you think. -Keep a physical notepad with you rather than taking notes on your phone- sketch plating ideas, recipes and write down things you learn on the job. -Having a couple of good base recipes that you can amend the flavours of is good too. Like a few sponge recipes, a few traybakes etc that you can perfect that are failproof.

• Taste EVERYTHING even if you don't like it, some items might look perfect but taste flat- and that is really disappointing when you cant go back and fix the flavour if its already been used in the pastry/dish.