Today, anyone can choose a profession to their liking, however, regardless of the path chosen, it is necessary to approach the profession with an understanding of one's own responsibility and knowledge of the matter. In this article we will look at what the confectioner's job description consists of.
What do confectioners do and where do they come from?
The field of creating culinary art has always been in demand. A pastry chef is usually a creative person who specializes in preparing sweet products. The history of this profession has its roots in antiquity: for example, the ancient Arabs, who knew about such a substance as sugar, since the 9th century, and the ancient Indians, who were sugar cane has been available since ancient times. Modern confectionery art, familiar to Russian people today, began to be laid in Europe in the XV-XVI centuries. Entire dynasties of confectioners arose here, in which the secrets of the profession, the subtleties and nuances existing in it, were passed down from father to son from century to century.
Confectioner's job description: what is prescribed in the documents
When hiring a pastry chef, he, like any employee, is offered to familiarize himself with a special document regulating the main provisions of his work. Confectioner's job description may vary slightly from organization to organization, but as a rule, it always includes the following universal items:
- General Provisions
- Qualification requirements for the employee: the required education, work experience, possession of certain knowledge and skills are indicated here. The latter include, for example, the ability to use the necessary syrups, creams, baked and finishing semi-finished products in each particular case; knowledge of the basic recipes and manufacturing techniques for cakes, muffins, pastries, cookies, rolls and other pastry dishes; the ability to artistically decorate the product, taking into account special techniques for mounting the drawing, etc. In this paragraph, the applicant may also be presented with additional requirements that arise from the presence of his confectionery category (they will be discussed in this article below).
- Documents that regulate the activity of the confectioner. Here the main sources of information are prescribed, to which, in case of violation of obligations by one or another party, the appearance of disputed issues during work, etc., an appeal is made to resolve emerging issues. These are the organization’s charter, the order and orders of the director (or directly the head of the confectionery workshop), the internal labor regulations, the present job description of the confectioner (internal documents). In addition, at a wider level, the holistic labor process is regulated by regulatory, legal and legislative acts (external documents).
- Confectioner's duties. This section covers the functionality of the employee’s activities and usually includes the requirement for him to competently conduct the process of manufacturing confectionery products, design and form the details of the picture, frame the products using chocolate, meringues, creams, select a specific, matching color scheme for the products, apply patterns, and create drawing from small and medium components, check the quality and weight of the created product, develop unique recipes and production technologies for branded goods x units.
- Confectioner's rights. Here, the organization indicates how the employee, in turn, can influence the workflow. Given that this is not a labor contract, salary indicators, rest time or the possibility of going on vacation will not sign here.But it is here that it is indicated that the employee has the opportunity to regularly get acquainted with draft decisions of the company’s management regarding him, the employee, activities, make suggestions for improving and improving the work, inform his boss about the shortcomings, if any, are revealed during the activity of the confectioner within his labor competence .
Now that these provisions have been disassembled, it is time to move on to how the daily routine of such a cook is being formed, what the confectioner's workplace looks like, and why a lot of different people are going into this area today.
The benefits of such a job
The profession of confectioner is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. In the course of their work, specialists in this field are faced with both pluses and minuses. The first include the possibilities of creative self-realization (after all, confectioners perform a very wide layer of work exclusively with the help of auxiliary tools), a decent level of wages (in Moscow it averages from 30 thousand rubles and more), as well as enduring demand on the labor market . Good confectioners will always be needed in bakeries, food plants and factories, in pastry shops, cafes, canteens, restaurants and other places of public catering.
disadvantages
However, along with this, the profession of confectioner often has a negative effect on a person, and often this is due to the physical condition. An employee often has to work at elevated temperatures and stand on his feet a lot. In addition, the need at all stages of creating a product to taste it in order to identify compliance with the wishes of the client and the established standards can lead to the fact that the employee will rapidly gain weight.
Place of work
Usually, the confectioner works in the confectionery workshop or in a special room where everything is equipped for its convenience. The confectioner's inventory includes tools such as special containers, dishes, tin and plastic tubes, special syringes for filling, tin or aluminum combs, a mechanical “whisk”, a gas or electric deep fryer, and various blenders. The confectioner's place of work is not imagined without the number of tables necessary for him personally (they should be large enough, free and spacious, have drawers), stoves, ovens, refrigerators or refrigerators. The workplace should be equipped with racks, cabinets, shelves for storing special confectionery supplies. Inventory for the confectioner is not the key to success, but only half the battle.
In addition to it, a good ventilation system must be equipped in advance in the room. Hot and cold water, necessary raw materials, fuel and electricity should be available in the confectionery shop at any time. Otherwise, if access to these components by the employee is difficult or involves constant problems, labor-intensive processes of creating unique products will be delayed. There will be nothing to think about the rational organization of labor and the most economical use of working time.
Discharges
Depending on how professional the specialist is and what experience is behind him, 6 professional categories are distinguished in the confectionery world system. The categories of confectioners, of which there are 6 in all, depend on the qualifications of the employees. At the end of a specialized school, college or technical school, a person is immediately assigned the 3rd or 4th category (in connection with obtaining secondary vocational education), which is confirmed by a diploma and the corresponding certificate. Subsequently, the confectioner can increase his skill level to the maximum, 6th category.In this case, he will be in demand in large luxury restaurants and hotels for VIPs, and will also be able to fulfill individual orders, without risking being left without customers. To move to a new discharge level, the confectioner will have to take advanced training courses, after successful completion of which he will be issued an appropriate certificate with a newly assigned skill level.
Where can I get an education?
In order to gain access to the confectionery shop in the future and earn money on the manufacture of sweet products, it is necessary to obtain a secondary professional education in any of the following areas: “Food Technology Technologist”, “Sugar Confectioner” or “Cook-Confectioner” directly. If for any reason this is not possible, intensive courses and programs that provide for the issuance of appropriate certificates and diplomas can help. Particularly in demand in this area today are those who have received higher education, for example, at the faculties of the restaurant or hotel business, as well as having studied in foreign culinary schools.
To summarize
So, this is the specifics of working as a confectioner. If you are accurate, attentive, physically hardy, have a well-developed imagination, sense of smell, touch, taste and just do not imagine yourself without a world of sweets, then why not try yourself in the role of not a consumer, but a producer of cupcakes, muffins, cakes, cupcakes and everything the rest? After all, who does not take risks, he does not get the last bite!