Culinary Graduate Degrees

Related occupations
Pastry Chef

A pastry chef applies culinary skills to the creation and decoration of desserts for restaurants, hotels, and special events. According to Roland Mesnier, the White House Executive Pastry Chef, a pastry chef should love baking everything from simple cookies to elaborate cakes. Baking and pastry arts... see more rely on chemistry, and a pastry chef often begins the exacting prep work well in advance of the actual baking. Because pastry chefs work with perishable ingredients such as eggs, cream, and butter, knowledge of food safety and sanitation is crucial to the job. Industrial bakeries make large quantities of baked goods for supermarkets and other retail outlets. In large industrial bakeries, bakers specialize in one aspect of the process. All-around bakers supervise and coordinate the workers while helpers perform unskilled jobs. Much of the work at the industrial level is done in an assembly-line fashion: for example, mixers weigh the ingredients and put them into blending machines; divider machine operators control the machines that shape dough into small balls; and dough molders operate machines that shape the balls into loaves. In some bakeries bench hands do the work of both divider machine operators and dough molders. Bench hands knead the dough by hand and form it into fancy shapes such as braided bread rings. Oven tenders bake the goods, carefully watching time and temperature. Bakeries that make cakes and pastries may also employ icing mixers and icers

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Executive Chef

An executive chef is the commander of the kitchen; he coordinates the kitchen staff and manages the preparation of meals. While the job may demand long hours, weekends, and holidays, it also allows for culinary creativity. Executive chefs work in restaurants, hotels, casinos, corporate dining establishments,... see more and even the White House. An executive chef's duties include menu planning and management responsibilities. An executive chef plans menus, creates daily and weekly specials, and determines portions sizes. Before and during meals, an executive chef oversees prep work and ensures that all meals leaving the kitchen are consistent in presentation and quality.