Pastry shop

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Display of a pastry shop in Calgary, Canada

A pastry shop , confectionery or sugar bakery (also called confectionery or pâtisserie ) is a craft business in which fine or sweet pastries are made and usually also sold in the attached shop. The associated job title is pastry chef and confectioner . Many pastry shops are combined with a café .

Important products of a pastry shop are gateaux , cakes , pralines , petit fours , ice cream and pâtisserie . The tree cake is traditionally a symbol of the confectioners' association. Confectionery is still often considered a luxury product today . The products are a pastry from the confectioner in the bakery produced. Sometimes confectioners use ready-made baking mixes and convenience products, such as B. fruit purees, printed marzipan blankets or liquid protein.

term

The confectionery is different from the bakery in that no bread products are produced there and the artistic side of the craft is often emphasized. The craft arose from the specialization of certain bakers in the production of sweet bread that was enriched with candied fruits or the like. The term “confectioner” comes from the Latin condīre ( pickle, preserve, prepare deliciously, season ). The form “canditor”, which emerged in the 18th century and is still regionally widespread today, is derived from candying .

Development of the confectionery profession

gingerbread

Lebküchner around 1520

The pastry profession evolved from that of the baker. After the bakers had mastered the art of baking bread in the late Middle Ages (15th century), some of them refined the dough with honey , dried fruits and spices. These specialists called themselves Lebküchler, Lebküchner or Lebzelter. In 1643 they founded a gingerbread guild in the Nuremberg area. At the same time as the wax , the by-product of honey, the gingerbread manufacturers operated another trade: the wax making . They supplied churches and households with artistic candles , wax figures and wax pictures. They carved wooden models themselves into which they poured the wax for the magnificent wax pictures. The demanding artistic activity of wax drawing was carried out by a few pastry shops until recently. The gingerbread bakers later developed into the confectioners and then the confectioners.

Sugar and spices from the Orient

With the sea trade, large quantities of spices and sugar from the Orient came to the port cities of Genoa and Venice . The sugar exerted an unbelievable attraction, but because of its preciousness it was reserved for the rich. The confectioner's profession was initially linked to that of the pharmacist , as only he was allowed to trade in the exotic treasures. The word " confectionery " for sweets comes from the language of the drug manufacturers also known as confectionari .

Marzipan production

In the 14th century, the Venetians brought marzipan to Central Europe, a confectionery made from almonds, sugar and rose water . It was an ideal modeling clay for magnificent marzipan pictures, which were artistically painted with self-made vegetable paints and often decorated with gold leaf . Marzipan was also traded in pharmacies in the early modern era.

Chocolate in the pastry shop

After the discovery of America, chocolate came to Europe, but was initially enjoyed primarily as drinking chocolate. It was only when the Dutchman van Houten succeeded in pressing the cocoa mass in 1828 that cocoa butter and cocoa powder were also available as raw materials. With the help of chocolate diluted with cocoa butter, all imaginable figures were cast and cocoa painting with cocoa powder became popular for decorating cakes. The profession of " chocolatier ", a specialist among confectioners, was born. Chocolate now occupied an important place in the pastry shop. The chocolate cake by Franz Sacher , 1832 chocolate chef at Prince Metternich in Vienna, is an example of this.

Craft of the pastry chef

job profile

Pastry chef at work

A pastry chef is a craftsman who specializes in making fine baked goods. The production of pies, cakes and ice cream is just as much a part of his activities as that of biscuits , pralines, hollow figures, filled pieces, confectionery and candied fruits. Decorations made from marzipan, chocolate and sugar are also the confectioners' specialty. There is some overlap with the baker , some pastry chefs are also bakers. When Maria Theresa approved the first confectioners' guild in Innsbruck , the confectionery trade was renamed confectioner. In Switzerland there is the professional designation “confectioner-confectioner” or since 2011 “ baker-confectioner-confectioner ”. The confectioner makes sweet pastries, while the confectioner specializes in sugar and chocolate specialties. Making wedding cakes is one of the technical challenges .

Although the industry can produce much higher quantities of products in a shorter time, which always retain 100% constant quality, the work processes and raw materials must be adapted to the machines in order to guarantee these optimal processes. Therefore, certain work techniques or raw material combinations cannot be used in industry.

Initial and continuing education

Germany

Examples from a confectioner journeyman examination

Like the baker, the pastry chef is also an apprenticeship that is learned in a three-year apprenticeship period and upon successful completion of which one receives a journeyman's certificate. For the confectioner profession, there is a master craftsman's certificate, which can be obtained after taking part in a preparatory course (duration between 3 and 12 months depending on the school and federal state) through a master craftsman's examination at the Chamber of Crafts . The master craftsman's certificate is a prerequisite for running your own pastry shop and training apprentices. In vocational schools, inter-company instruction courses are offered with special topics that cannot be taught in every training company (such as ice cream production, pâtisserie). After graduating as a master confectioner, it is also possible to take certain courses at the university in order to take up another profession in the food sector.

Austria

In Austria, the three-year apprenticeship also takes place in the dual training system at vocational schools and at commercial and industrial training companies. In related apprenticeships, the training time is shortened. B. for candy and confectionery makers or bakers. The training ends with the final apprenticeship examination . This is the prerequisite for further training to become a master. In contrast to Germany, a master craftsman's examination is not absolutely necessary for a trade license, but it makes it easier to obtain it. Access to higher qualifications at universities and technical colleges is achieved in Austria by taking the vocational matura (vocational maturity examination), which consists of the final apprenticeship examination and four other exams.

Switzerland

see baker-confectioner-confectioner

Well-known pastry chefs

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: confectionery  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Cake shops  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer: Etymological dictionary. Online edition , version 1.0.71
  2. ↑ It's only sweet in the distance , WOZ.
  3. ↑ Trade Access Ordinance ( Federal Law Gazette II No. 63/2003 ) of the Austrian Ministry of Economic Affairs

literature

  • Friedrich Holtz a. a .: Textbook of the pastry shop . 5th edition. Trauner, Linz 2009, ISBN 978-3-85499-367-4 .