| Any Pastry Chefs available to offer guidance?

Any Pastry Chefs available to offer guidance?

dishy_ny asked:


I am getting ready to end my current career and go to culinary school to become a pastry chef. I’m already 36 so this is a pretty big step for me and I’m so very excited!!!

In Los Angeles, how much do entry level pastry cooks average per year / week or hour? How difficult is it to break in to a good restaurant? Are there specific websites/headhunters that chefs and cooks use to find work?
I am thinking of attending Kitchen Academy in Hollywood - does anyone have any experience with this school?

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Comments

2 Responses to “Any Pastry Chefs available to offer guidance?”

  1. vicseo on February 20th, 2009 7:01 am

    I’d pass on the Kitchen Academy located in Hollywood and South Pasadena since the $20,000 tuition [or so-called scholarship loan] for a six-months crash course is truly meaningless and of no serious value when compared to the $56,000+ tuition for the full-course culinary course at the Culinary Institute in Pasadena. On the other hand, a far better all around value is the $975 two-year offering from Los Angeles Trade Tech. The staff and faculty are top drawer working professional chefs with tons of experience and they are very competent teachers.

    As for the salary of starting pastry chefs, it’s around $30,000 to $35,000 per year. And the truly high income pastry chefs are mainly owners of established bakery houses.

    Good luck!

  2. fairbetsy on February 21st, 2009 2:31 pm

    Don’t go if they except students without real kitchen experience.
    Get a job in a bakery.
    The bakery is hotter than hell, the hours are very early in the morning, typically 2am starts, and the smell is over powering.
    It’s a really great job if you can hack the stress, so work for a year before school.
    If you love it you will take real kitchen experience with you which is invaluable! If you absolutely hate it, you won’t have loans of $35,000 or more to pay back.

    Any school that will admit students without actual kitchen experience is a scam school out to get your money.
    That job they guarantee you is the same one you are qualified for right now!