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Pastry Chef
Creates fine desserts, confections, and showpiece sugar/chocolate work for restaurants and competitions.
Did you know?
The tallest chocolate sculpture on record is a 13.52 m model of the Burj Khalifa, made from 5,200 kg of Belgian chocolate and shown in Dubai in 2014.
How subjects help
- Chemistry: Temper chocolate by heating and cooling it so it sets glossy and snaps cleanly.
- Art & Design: Sketch and build sugar and chocolate showpieces that look like sculptures.
- Mathematics: Weigh ingredients to the gram, because a small slip can make a soufflé collapse.
- Food Science: Whip egg whites and cream to trap air so a mousse stays light but holds its shape.
A famous name
Dominique Ansel: French pastry chef who invented the Cronut, a croissant–doughnut mix, in New York in 2013.
Try it yourself: Run a fair test with sugar
- Guess first: will sugar disappear faster in cold or warm water? Write your guess down.
- Fill one glass with cold water and one with warm tap water, the same amount in each.
- Tip a spoon of sugar into each at the same moment, stir each the same way, and time how long until it has gone.
- Was your guess right? What did you keep the same so the test was fair?
Chemists and researchers test ideas this way: change one thing, keep everything else the same, measure.
Also try: Watch a bean wake up.
Known for it in
France, Japan, Italy, Austria, Belgium