Depending on the school selected, the students have the choice of morning or afternoon classes which, typically, are six to seven hours in length five days a week. Day and afternoon students will graduate in six-months. At schools that offer evening classes, usually three evenings a week, the students receive their diplomas after nine months. As a rule, each class will consist of several demonstrations by the pastry chef-instructor, after which the students return to their stations to begin working on the subject dishes of that lesson.

For the most part, 90-percent of the curriculum will be entirely hands-on training in the kitchen and will consist of courses such as: breakfast pastries; bread making; Petite Four’s and mini-pastries; cakes and tarts; frozen desserts; plated desserts; wedding cakes; custards and mousses; sugar work; cookies; piping and decorations; puff pastries; chocolate artistry, and much more. At the end of the training, your repertoire will rival that of many world-class pastry chefs. The tuition costs outlined are based to a large degree on the quality of the training, and the reputation of the faculty and the school.

Cost: (6-month pastry program)

• $13,000 - Standard pastry school
• $20,000 - Nationally recognized French pastry school
• $37,000 - Top-ten rated French pastry school

Employment Prospects

Pastry school graduates will find a wide-range of opportunities awaiting them such as opening their own bakery, establishing themselves at a restaurant or hotel, getting into the catering business, as a pastry instructor, etc. As far as pastry chef wages is concerned, a salary survey performed in 2007 found that the median salary by years of experience for pastry chefs ranged from $34,600 for a recent graduate with 1 to 4 years of experience, up to $50,000+ for 10 years or more.