Why I want to be a pastry chef

STREAT is starting a series of blog posts by the STREAT trainees, as they reflect on their journey and share some of their passion around the skills they are learning. Here's the first example of the series, from Jamie, a STREAT trainee.

I was watching Masterchef recently, with special guest Adriano Zumbo who brought in one of his signature cakes called the V8 cake. He used white tempered chocolate to make spikes, of different heights, almost claws, on top of the cake. There were eight different layers of vanilla. Watching it, I felt like I wanted to do what he was doing. It looked so perfect. It’s something that I’d want to make for my family some day. For me, to cook for my family… my grandma has always cooked for me, and I’ve liked everything she’s made. Both my grandmas are sort of chefs, so they both cook. I’d be happy to cook for them one day, because they’ve cooked for me for 17 years.

I decided recently that I want to be a pastry chef. I talked to a couple chefs and they reckon pastry chefs are really good because there aren’t many good pastry chefs out there, and I like a challenge. Dessert is my favourite food. Dessert looks better than other food— it looks more clean. It tastes better. I reckon it’s very hard to make everything look so good.

I used to think that I wanted to work in construction. I like being able to make something, and I know I did it. Being a pastry chef in a way is sort of the same. You’re putting stuff together, everything the right size, and you need the right amount of sugar, like the right size of food. The sizes and masses and measurements really matter.

I reckon it’s pretty difficult to become a good pastry chef, but I practice at home every day. Last night I made pumpkin soup. I made spaghetti and butter chicken curry before that. I’ve been baking sticky date pudding, this chocolate rich raspberry pudding thing (it was on the Masterchef magazine, George was holding it!) apple strudel cake, and profiteroles. We made the dough from scratch in a saucepan, and we used a piping bag and everything. I think I liked the apple strudel cake best. I spent most time on it—like 2 hours cutting the apple paper thin so that is sat neatly on top.