Apprentice Pastry Chef - Cambridge

Join our team as an Apprentice Pastry Chef and gain hands-on experience creating pastries, desserts, and baked goods while earning a recognised Level 3 qualification. Learn from experienced chefs, develop valuable skills, and build a rewarding career in a supportive environment.

Most of your apprenticeship is spent working. You’ll learn on the job by getting hands-on experience.

Responsibilities

• Supporting production across bread, pastries, café items, and hospitality preparation
• Assisting with a varied workload, including approximately 20% bread, 40% pastry production, 20% café items, and 20% hospitality prep
• Carrying out tasks such as laminating, filling and finishing pastries, producing desserts and chocolates, and preparing items for events
• Supporting event service and ensuring high standards of presentation
• Adapting to a varied day-to-day workload based on school operations and service demands

Requirements

• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished dough products including fermented yeast, non-fermented, laminated, enriched and hand-shaped doughs
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished batter products including separated egg, creamed, whisked whole egg, yeasted and French, Swiss, and Italian meringue mix sponges.
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished confectionery and chocolate products including honeycomb or cinder toffee, marshmallow, caramel mou, caramelised nuts, nougat, macaron, Florentine, moulded and dipped bon bons, piped truffle, pate de fruit, and chocolate decorations.
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished paste products using choux, sweet, short or brise, inverse and classic puff, and sable pastries.
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished fruit products including poached, roasted, baked, confit, conserves, compotes, fillings, and curd.
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished biscuit products including hollandaise and a la poche sable, Breton, cookies, and tuille.
• Use professional production methods to create refined, finished hot, cold and frozen desserts including starch and non-starch based souffles, fondants, tarts, ice creams, sorbets, parfaits, granites, dacquoise, set creams (anglaise, ganache, meringue) and sabayon mousse.
• Use professional production techniques to create refined fillings including ganache, crémeux, frangipane, praline, crème pat, diplomat and mousseline, meringue, chiboust butter cream, bavorois, sec, savoury, baked custard, and gels and inserts.
• Use professional production techniques to create refined finishes including glazes, sauces, coulis, and icing
• Use professional production methods to create refined, filled, constructed patisserie products including opera, éclair, St Honore, chocolate, fruit and meringue tarts, millefeuille, fraisier, black forest gâteaux, mont blanc, paris brest, pithivier or galette, petit and large entremets.
• Use professional production methods to create small decorative display work including nougatine, pastillage, cooked sugar and chocolate which can be in combination.
• Reformulate recipes to produce plant-based, gluten free and allergen free alternatives.
• Use sensory and related to methods to ensure ingredients are the right quality.
• Interpret specifications to achieve intended quality standards
• Manage time, temperature and environment when preparing and cooking refined products
• Identify and resolve errors during the production process
• Apply quality standards related to size, texture, flavour, consistency, and appearance to finished products.
• Design products to ensure they can be effectively presented, held, served and or transported to customers on and off site without negative impact on the finished product
• Select and use specialist pastry equipment and technology to make refined finished products
• Prepare, check, clean, and maintain specialist pastry equipment
• Proactively maintain a safe, clean and hygienic working environment to manage compliance with all food safety and health and safety legislation
• Plan to meet daily demand, allocating resources and proactively managing risk to production.
• Prepare mise en place lists
• Adapt plans according to variable internal and external factors
• Improve or develop new products considering customer, profit, standards and brand fit
• Adopt sustainable working practices to minimise waste and maximise yield for product batches
• Use professional communication styles and methods relevant to a commercial kitchen.
• Observe professional standards for teamwork, including equity, diversity and inclusion, and act to support the wellbeing and professional development of self and colleagues.