2 answers
Rose
Student
Hainesport, New Jersey
1
Question
Asked
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What path does it take to start your own bakery?
Baking is one of my favorite hobbies. I’ve tried many new recipes and it is so much fun.
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2 answers
Lynn Miller
Private and Personal Chef, Food Stylist, Recipe Developer
13
Answers
Cold Spring, New York
Updated
Lynn’s Answer
First, try to get a job in a professional bakery and work there for at least a year. It also depends on whether you want to pursue bread baking or pastry work. It's good to know both, but most bakers gravitate to one or the other. Understand that professional baking involves a lot of heavy physical work-especially bread baking. You will be loading, unloading, moving, emptying and filling multiple bins with 50 pound bags of flour, sugar, butter, oil etc, etc.
Baking also involves a lot of mathematics. You should develop a broad facility with multiplication, division and percentages. Do yourself a huge favor and become intimately familiar with metric measurements. It is so much easier to expand and decrease recipes using metrics because everything is done in factors of 10.
Forget measuring anything by cups or volume of any sort. One cup of flour can vary wildly, depending on how it is filled and what type of flour you are using. The same follows for every other ingredient you may use in a recipe. Using a scale when measuring will increase your chances of a successful bake.
Understand that baking is affected by ambient temperature and humidity more than any other culinary art. Only continued practice and experience will prepare you for how these factors will affect any recipe.
Obtain a copy of "The Bakers Manual" and Shirley Corriher's "BakeWise" and read them cover to cover. Shirley Corriher is a food scientist who explains very clearly how and why recipes work and don't work. To gain a good understanding of the differences and correlation between traditional American measurements and metric in baking, obtain a copy of Rose Levy Berenbaum's "The Cake Bible". Her recipes are exactingly tested and measurements are presented in all three styles-volume, empirical weights, and metric. Once you get it into your head what a kilo of flour or sugar looks like, a liter of liquid, and several grams of salt or leavening, you will never want to bake using any other method.
This is especially true when baking bread with naturally fermented starters. All recipes for this type of bread are written as percentages based on the total amount of flour used.
Owning a bakery should be a long term goal. Learn to bake professionally in a large volume scratch bakery (not Walmart or grocery store where they use mixes and prefabs) and work there for at least a year. This will inform you as to whether you have the physical strength, stamina, and ability to consistently work very early morning shifts (I'm talking 3-4 AM start times)-these are all basic requirements of working in the baking industry.
Baking also involves a lot of mathematics. You should develop a broad facility with multiplication, division and percentages. Do yourself a huge favor and become intimately familiar with metric measurements. It is so much easier to expand and decrease recipes using metrics because everything is done in factors of 10.
Forget measuring anything by cups or volume of any sort. One cup of flour can vary wildly, depending on how it is filled and what type of flour you are using. The same follows for every other ingredient you may use in a recipe. Using a scale when measuring will increase your chances of a successful bake.
Understand that baking is affected by ambient temperature and humidity more than any other culinary art. Only continued practice and experience will prepare you for how these factors will affect any recipe.
Obtain a copy of "The Bakers Manual" and Shirley Corriher's "BakeWise" and read them cover to cover. Shirley Corriher is a food scientist who explains very clearly how and why recipes work and don't work. To gain a good understanding of the differences and correlation between traditional American measurements and metric in baking, obtain a copy of Rose Levy Berenbaum's "The Cake Bible". Her recipes are exactingly tested and measurements are presented in all three styles-volume, empirical weights, and metric. Once you get it into your head what a kilo of flour or sugar looks like, a liter of liquid, and several grams of salt or leavening, you will never want to bake using any other method.
This is especially true when baking bread with naturally fermented starters. All recipes for this type of bread are written as percentages based on the total amount of flour used.
Owning a bakery should be a long term goal. Learn to bake professionally in a large volume scratch bakery (not Walmart or grocery store where they use mixes and prefabs) and work there for at least a year. This will inform you as to whether you have the physical strength, stamina, and ability to consistently work very early morning shifts (I'm talking 3-4 AM start times)-these are all basic requirements of working in the baking industry.
Howard Pierceall CEC, CCE WCEC
Chef, Chef Instructor, Business owner
104
Answers
Sun City, Arizona
Updated
Howard’s Answer
Pastry, baking, accounting, marketing, and business management. You have to be good at making the products. Then you have to know how to market your business. Then to maintain it you need to watch the numbers. That includes payroll, purchasing, rent, utilities, insurance, and managing employees. Not to mention the capital you need to start. First, write a business plan. Next research what all of the costs will be to run your business for one month. Now multiply that times 12. Add on the cost of all the equipment you need, rent, and deposits for your location.
That will give you the total cost. Now put that money in the bank. If you do not use any of the money in the first year. You can start to take some out. But if problems arise you will have the cash to deal with the problem. This will give you a better chance of success. I hope this helps. Get help and advise from professionals you trust.
That will give you the total cost. Now put that money in the bank. If you do not use any of the money in the first year. You can start to take some out. But if problems arise you will have the cash to deal with the problem. This will give you a better chance of success. I hope this helps. Get help and advise from professionals you trust.