Chefs v Pastry Chefs

They are two different breeds entirely. I'm a chef. I like to bake but I'm not a pastry chef. Pastry chefs have to work very precisely and there is also a fair amount of science involved with measurements, temperature, etc.. We chefs (cooks ) can throw something in a pan, sear it, toss it, throw a handful of stuff in there and it's done. Making a wedding cake for example is incredibly time consuming and requires much patience. Chefs don't have this. We don't want to have to spackle and wait and spackle again and measure and be real precise. So don't get me wrong, I do give props to the pastry chefs. Somebody's got to do that job.

The real difference is temperament. The pastry chefs are the delicate geniuses of the business. They prefer to work when no one else is around in very quiet surroundings with no distractions. Chefs wouldn't be able to work if they didn't have distractions- we constantly have to communicate with each other, the waitstaff, the dishwashers.

Pastry chefs are very high maintenance. They must have the best and they must have all the tools. I had a gal who worked for me who didn't understand why I didn't just put in a whole other oven (which of course would need a hood- the most expensive part of the whole deal) right where she worked so she wouldn't have to walk all the way to our ovens and have to share them with the cooks.

Another one that I started a business with had to have the state of the art bakery equipment. This included a 4 deck bread oven with all the bells and whistles, imported piece by piece from Italy for the mere sum of $70,000. Meanwhile we met a guy in another part of the state who made amazing bread using a souped up pizza oven and a spray bottle. Must have been trained as a chef.

Chefs make it work. We can jeri-rig anything and produce what we need. We're like the Mr. Wizards of the industry. We don't care if we have to use a food processor that's duct-taped together and you have to stick a knife in it to make the connection for the motor to work. We don't care if we have perfect Lexan containers- that's why we order yogurt and feta cheese so we can re-use the plastic tubs they come in. My crew and I were catering an outdoor wedding (in a hurricane, I might add) and the stove in the house stopped working. We had a grill for cooking but we used it as a warmer and got every hors d'oeuvres out on time. Cooks can make a bain-marie out of anything. Tongs are an extension of our hands. We laugh at heat and fire.

Pastry chefs need quiet and solitude. Chefs are known for pants-ing each other. We also have a lot of big sharp knives.

Chefs dig the adrenaline. We like heat and we like speed. We need to get busy with a row of tickets up for us to get out. We like the pressure. Call us crazy but at least we are low maintenance.