Pastry Intern Struggling w/Note Taking

[BakerMom]

Our son started a pastry internships and the sous chef told him he doesn't take good notes. Our son has LD/ADHD.

How can we help? We were thinking of asking him to watch YouTube videos of pastry shows and to take notes.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

No pastry shows are not professionals; not using any professional methods or techniques. Professional baking is done in a completely different way than home baking. You don’t want him picking up totally wrong technique and really bad habits by watching those videos.

1) Work expectations: have your son make an appointment to sit down with the sous chef and have them explain the proper way to take notes. He needs to learn to operate in a professional kitchen and he needs to adapt to the expectation’s of the he is working under. It’s an internship the expectation is they are there to teach and he is there to learn.

2) Tutor: if you have a culinary program in your area, contact the dean. Ask if they have any upper class students in the culinary program who you can hire to tutor your son in areas where he is lacking. Also help with his note taking.

3) Textbooks: if you already haven’t purchased him baking textbooks to begin build a resource library, I suggest you start. Textbooks are expensive. They’re not cookbooks. I would start with Michel Suas Advance Bread & Pastry (buy from San Francisco Baking Institute); Paula Figoni How Baking Works (explains the function of ingredients in baking); Wayne Gisslen Professional Baking (I think it’s in its 8th edition on Wiley publishers website).

 

[BakerMom]

This is so kind of you. Our son is 18 hours in a 26 hour pastry program and Gisslen is the text. So he does have some experience.

This internship is at a catering company and he is working 10, 12 hour days! It may well be because this is their busy season (graduations/weddings) that the sous chef is not giving him the instruction an internship would warrant.

Is it legitimate to ask for this instruction? We don't want to push the boundaries.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

This is so kind of you. Our son is 18 hours in a 26 hour pastry program and Gisslen is the text. So he does have some experience.

This internship is at a catering company and he is working 10, 12 hour days! It may well be because this is their busy season (graduations/weddings) that the sous chef is not giving him the instruction an internship would warrant.

Is it legitimate to ask for this instruction? We don't want to push the boundaries.

If he’s already in a pastry program then he should seek tutoring assistance on note taking taking from the school.

Yes it is appropriate for him to talk to the caterer, especially since he already got feedback from the caterer on his poor note-taking. The caterer is letting him know that he is missing a learning opportunity and possibly failing to follow through on instructions. He needs to ask what the caterer what specifically he means when he says the note taking is poor; how is this affecting his job performance; how can he improve his note-taking.

26 hours is not even a pastry program, it’s a equivalent to a four day workshop. Even a pastry specific program with no degree is going to be about 16 weeks full time. A degree program will be two years for an associate degree; four years for a bachelors degree.

Wedding season is always busy. And this year is out of the ordinary in that there’s more demand for wedding services and goods as many couples delayed their weddings due to the pandemic. But on the other hand it is good practice for him to experience wedding rush.