Eagerness to Work

Baking professionally is demanding, both physically and mentally. By the time they graduate, students know their fellow students who have been the hardest working, especially those who seek extra work, extra opportunities to learn, are the most successful. Once they have graduated, bakers and chefs who give the most effort are the ones who advance the fastest.

One of the hardest discoveries for new culinarians is the repetitive nature of the work—doing the same tasks over and over, whether making up hundreds of dinner rolls a day or thousands of cookies for holiday sales. Successful bakers and chefs approach repetition as an opportunity for building skills. Only by doing a cooking task over and over can you really master it, really understand every nuance and variable.