Three steps to becoming a professional baker

There are a range of great career opportunities for our students after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu London, with success stories that include head chefs, business owners, wine producers, chocolatiers, and even cooking show stars, but it may be difficult to decide what path you want to follow. So this series of careers articles will be exploring the wide range of routes that are available to those dedicated and talented people who have gained a Diploma at the world-leading culinary arts, wine and management school!

Traditionally a baker works in a bakery and caters to their local market but nowadays they can also work in specialty shops, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels.

Being a baker requires a lot of hard work and long hours but it is equally as rewarding, so if this is the career path that you truly want to follow, then our Teaching Chefs at Le Cordon Bleu London are providing you with these three essential steps to making your dream a reality.

1. Take a course:
What better way is there to learn the right skills and techniques other than straight from the experts? Even if you are a more experienced baker, culinary training can help to improve your craft and expand your baking repertoire.

Our Diplôme de Boulangerie has been specifically designed to prepare you for working in a professional bakery. You will learn how to make basic and advanced bread doughs, viennoiseries, and a plethora of other baked goods under the guidance of our Master Baker Dominque Moudart who has spent more than 30 years perfecting his boulangerie skills.

Our baking course can also be combined with our Diplôme de Pâtisserie for all-round training in both areas of expertise.

2. Get some experience:
Once you have equipped yourself with the right skill set and boulangerie knowledge through culinary training, it is time to get some real experience in a baking environment and put what you have learnt into practice. Of course it helps if you have connections in the industry and luckily here at Le Cordon Bleu London, we hold quarterly careers fairs where our students have the opportunity to meet with leading hotels, restaurants, bakeries and recruitment agencies.

Also, if you do choose to combine our Diplôme de Boulangerie and Diplôme de Pâtisserie, then there is also the option to add on our Culinary Management and Internship Pathway. This integrated programme provides you with the experience of working in a professional kitchen as part of your culinary training, as well as equipping you with management skills and the business know-how, needed to potentially run your own bakery.

3. Practice and be creative:
If you want to be successful you have to continue to practice so that you become a master of your craft. Even our Chefs know that there is always room for improvement, and there is always new things to be learned. As a baker you need to have perfect attention to detail in order to produce goods that are neither under or overbaked, and decorated and presented in an appetizing manner. But in order to really stand out from the crowd you have to be creative and not be afraid to experiment. Create new recipes, experiment with different flavours and textures, and just have fun with it!

If you want to make that first step to becoming a baker then enroll on our Diplôme de Boulangerie today and make your passion into a career.