Life of a Pastry Commis

Before starting my job as a pastry commis, I worked the traditional 8-5 office job. I was so accustomed to unwinding on the weekends, grabbing dinner with friends on weeknights, and complaining about the horrible rush hour commute. When I decided to take a complete 180° turn and pursue a job in the culinary industry, I knew my entire life and schedule would change. However, I don’t think I was quite ready for what a new day in my life would look like!

Currently, i work as a pastry commis. The company has a pastry chef(chef Chris), and two pastry cooks (jah and me)and two bakers(night shift). We do morning production, checking/monitoring of stock refill and item dispatch, while bakers shift at night for the bread production.

We’re on our 3rd week now, jah and i is trying to cope up with the pastry kitchen’s daily routine. We are very grateful because everyone in the company is very accommodating especially Chef Chris.

How Important is it to Love Your Job?

Being happy at work and loving what you do is an overall productivity booster and enhances performance. People who enjoy their jobs are more likely to be optimistic, motivated, learn faster, make fewer mistakes, and has better decisions.

The experience you have when you are “in the zone”. You feel fully focused, creative, and ideas are flowing freely.

This means that every time you are given a task and view it negatively, this mindset is already making it harder for you to complete your work. Doing work you love is energizing and creates a positive feedback loop that fuels productivity. Your passion for the work energizes you and vice versa, giving you more fuel to put towards success. The trick is figuring out how to make yourself love your work even the most tedious of tasks.

Finding Passion for Everyday Tasks

An overall positive and passionate mindset can be difficult to enact while completing tedious assignments. To change the way you think, you must also change the way you work. Find the significance in your efforts, live the vision of your company, work with your colleagues, and in turn you can encourage positive change and take one step closer to success.

Every company has a mission or vision that they work to achieve, raising your significance by working towards the common goal will keep you on the path towards success. By seeing your part in the big picture and realizing your worth, positivity and passion come naturally.

The Uniqueness of culinary creativity

Culinary creativity takes various manifestations, whether as a creative product, creative process, or creative person.
A culinary product is received and is evaluated by customers; chefs develop product
through the culinary process and are evaluated by food cost the culinarian is nurtured by experience and/or education.
Whether a chef can be considered as an artist who produces an art work that is
worthy of appreciation by customers, or whether she/he should be considered as a
craftsman who has the required skills to produce good food.

My recent outputs: Saturdays will always be my arena of executing my gift of food presentation. Grateful enough to have chef Chris allowing us to give room/to showcase our abilities as a neophyte in the culinary industry.

I was assigned to make dessert for the executives, and this was my second time showcasing my skill in creating plated desserts.

How Mentors Will Help You Grow

One of the most important aspects to consider on the road to becoming a chef and becoming a better chef is mentorship.

Once you’ve gotten hired in a professional kitchen, you will find more mentors. An obvious place to look for mentorship are the head chef and sous chefs. But don’t discount anyone with experience at any level. An experienced cook, for example, who absolutely loves her role and doesn’t have plans to become a chef, has much to teach, as do servers, peers, and others on the team.

An attitude of being able to learn and grow from all people and experiences is perhaps the greatest mentorship mindset of all. These mentors in the workforce can help you navigate a busy professional kitchen and climb your way up the ladder.

Always ask questions and study the chefs you admire.  Most chefs are eager to share their knowledge with mentees, so that they can count on them for more tasks and responsibilities. As your chosen mentor or mentors share with you mistakes they’ve made and personal preferences they’ve come to have when cooking, you will find your own style and persona.

The people you’ve worked with and learned from are important throughout your career. Never stop searching for mentorship opportunities and keep your mentors in your network for as long as possible.