I make people happy. You don't need to eat desserts and sweets to survive, you eat them for pleasure. As a pastry chef, I get to create the things that give people that pleasure, and make them smile.

EDUCATION | High School, 2-year Apprenticeship

HOW TO GET STARTED | Know this, it's hard work, and you're almost always working when other people aren't (holidays, late nights, early mornings). As a pastry chef, you don't need any formal education/training, but you do need to do internships in the best pastry kitchen that will have you. If you want an education, the Culinary Institutes of America in both NY and CA offer 4-year degrees in the Culinary Arts, as well as Johnson and Whales. There's also a lot of 6-month programs, like the French Culinary Institute in NYC, which are good for career-changers, but you'll still need a few internships. Do an internship in Europe, in countries like France or Austria, places where pastry is part of the culture, and you can learn from masters. Learn about the science of baking, because it is a science.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Passion and love for what you do. Strength and endurance. Creativity. Discipline and precision.

how I got started | My grandfather and father were both pastry chefs, so I was in the kitchen as a kid. I started my formal apprenticeship in my father's patisserie at 15. In France, you have to pass an exam to prove your knowledge and skills after a formal apprenticeship, then you can be hired as an entry-level pastry cook. After five years at my father's (2 as an apprentice), I moved straight to Paris and got a job working with the best people from which to learn, at the famous Ladure on the Champs-Elyse.

why this job?| The fact that I grew up literally above my parents' patisserie had a lot to do with it. I knew from about age ten that this was what I wanted to do. Also, pastry combines art and science, so it's not just all creative or all technical, it's both equally so I get to use both sides of my brain. And of course I love desserts and pastries!

why I love this job!| The whole world of cooking and pastry is in constant evolution, so I'm always learning and creating new things. I love seeing the look on someone's face when they're really enjoying something I made. As a French pastry chef, I can easily work in any country in the world.

my typical day| In a bakery, it starts early, sometimes 2:00a.m., baking breakfast pastries and prepping for the items that will fill display cases throughout the day. In a restaurant we start a few hours before service, and again it's preparation and baking. There's also working the line, which is assembling and finishing desserts as orders come up. But there's no really typical day as an Executive, because you do all that, plus testing new recipes for changes to the menu, designing the layout of plated desserts, doing inventory, hiring and training staff, and going to meetings.

what they are | The biggest challenge is starting out at the very bottom as a grunt. You work very hard for little pay, which is challenging especially for career-changers, less so if you're still young. It's also a challenge to manage work-life, because you do work a lot of times when your family and friends are not working.

all about growth | There's a real ladder to climb, and the bottom isn't always fun. But when you love what you do and you work hard, you can literally and figuratively go almost anywhere in this field. There's always a demand for talented pastry chefs in America, especially those who have worked/interned in top European establishments. There's a huge diversity of work in this career--restaurants, hotels, bakeries, catering, wedding cakes, chocolate, competitions, even television and publishing.

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