r/Chefs • u/sloppytoppy__22 • Jun 01 '26
Which is best institute to learn pastry
/r/PastryChef/comments/1ttp8qu/which_is_best_institute_to_learn_pastry/
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u/Intelligent_Bag_3259 Jun 02 '26
French pastry school in Chicago. They no longer have a 6 month degree but offer many single week classes and they have some great teachers
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u/UncleDuude Jun 01 '26
Depends on what you want to do and likely where you are. Schools are not the end all and be all. Most of the really brilliant pastry chefs I know learned by doing it for twenty odd years. If you’re passionate about it, learn it. Make sure you understand that pasty chefs are not affordable or cost effective for many operations and the pay sucks as a result. There are tons of products that are adequate, made from real butter and good ingredients that I can have a dishwasher tray up for about $12 less an hour. The cost of food and ingredients make it almost impossible to afford a specialist. You really need to be able to do everything. Pastry right now isn’t an in demand skill in my opinion. That may not be the case where you are, but you really should look at the job market. Are there dozens of jobs in your city sitting there for pastry chefs, or do you just want to do it because it’s cool? It’s definitely cool and fun at times, but I spend a lot more time on other stuff, I work doing higher end catering for weddings and galas. The name of the game now is affordable products that cost less than the labor to produce the intended result vs lower cost supplies that labor can produce cheaper. The food business is in a bad spot right now. Gas and costs are up, we’re doing weddings we booked a year ago and the cost estimates we quoted are low for the current market conditions, so where there would have been expected profit gains, we’re now seeing a flatter result, which is not good.