They make the breads, pastries, candies, and desserts that we all love to eat. You'll find these creative men and women working as bakers, pastry cooks, pastry chefs, executive pastry chefs, and teachers in places like:

• hotels
• restaurants
• resorts
• cruise ships
• cafés and bistros
• bakeries
• catering businesses
• magazine test kitchens
• home-based cake shops
• colleges and high schools

As you can see, there are lots of things that bakers and pastry chefs do—and this isn't even the whole list!

Depending on where you work, you may need to be an early bird for this job. While many work more traditional hours, other pastry chefs and bakers start their day around 5 a.m. (sometimes even earlier), so that they have fresh products to offer their customers in the morning. The good news is, they may finish working earlier, too! Pastry chefs and bakers tend to be both artistic and precise and, with the right education and training, have lots of career choices.