Pastry Chef

Like most teenagers, Steven Anderson’s after-school kitchen job provided him with pocket money and a little independence. But when a couple of hours a week turned into weekends and school holidays, he saw the potential to make it a successful profession.

“I just went and inquired about a kitchen-hand job and that is how it started,” Anderson, 23, recalls of his first job at Gumnut Patisserie in the Southern Highlands.

He’s come a long way since his days working as a “dish pig”. And his career as a pastry chef is well and truly on the rise. Six months into a new job at Cuisine Patisserie in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, after completing a four-year apprenticeship, he has a 10-year plan.

“My goal is to have my own place and to train apprentices,” he says. “And to do that you need to manage and have a good business sense.”
Anderson believes experience in all areas of the industry not only makes him a better chef, it also enhances his management and business skills.

Success in the industry, Anderson says, is all about having the perfect mix of skills. His passion is pastry but he’s also a trained bread baker.
“I didn’t realise in my first few years that bread and baking were so diverse, simply because I had only seen the pastry side of it,” he says.

“I didn’t like it at first because I just thought that bread was bread. But when you start getting into it there are so many avenues, just the same as pastry.”

Being part of the whole learning process associated with a trade is something he gets a kick from.
“It is a big cycle,” he says.
`”First of all you are watching someone, then you learn yourself, and then you can pass that knowledge on to someone else.”

Anderson has just received a scholarship for the Le Cordon Bleu Certificate IV commercial cookery course in Ryde. Starting next year, he will be taught the practical elements of running an efficient business — including costing and budgeting and staff recruitment and retention. Anderson says the best thing for young people paving a career path is to work out where their interests lie.

“Four years is a very short time, so work hard for four years and you will come out at the end being able to do whatever you want,” he says.

“You can sit back at the back of the class and get very little out of it or you can be active in learning and come out with a great deal more.”

Anderson never thought his career would pan out as it has. After his HSC he was accepted by the University of Technology to study forensic science, but opted to follow his passion.
“The day I stop loving the trade and this industry I’ll go see if I can become a mature-age student,” he laughs.

How to be …a pastry chef
You are required to complete an apprenticeship in Food Processing (Retail Baking) Cake and Pastry.
For more information contact the National Food Industry Training Council,
(07) 3236 1919

By Erica Watson, The Daily Telegraph, November 26 2005.