A baker is responsible for making a wide range of breads, pastries and other baked goods. Like a pastry chef, a baker’s job requires a person to be an early bird, getting up to prepare whilst others sleep. One of the great things about being a baker is that it offers the possibility to work in diverse places, from a small family-owned bakery to a corporate-owned industrial operation.
Baker Job Description
The role of a baker varies greatly depending on the size of the operation. For example, a baker that is employed by a small family-run bakery usually works independently or as part of a close-knit team. A baker is this role would produce baked goods mostly by hand. In an industrial-scale bakery, numerous bakers would cooperate to mass produce baked goods. In this situation, a baker would do very little work by hand and would rely largely on machinery.
Bakers usually have a very tight production schedule that sets quotas for how many of a particular item they must produce each day.
Whether working in a small company or a large kitchen, a baker is required to master the use of a large number of tools in order to produce quality baked items. These tools range from simple kitchen implements such as a rolling pin, to complex industrial mixing machines. In any case, becoming a baker requires a great amount of training as this is highly skilled job title.
Baker Duties and Responsibilities
A baker’s main duty is measuring and mixing ingredients into dough according to a recipe. As bakers normally work according to tight schedules, it is important for them to rigirously check that the correct quantities are measured and applied. It also helps if a baker is creatuve, as many bakers are expected to come up with original recipes for new baked goods. Bakers are also often required to work alone; for this reason, the ability to be self-motivated is a huge advantage for aspiring bakers.
