Jacques Torres

Jacques Torres (http://www.chef2chef.net/articles/featured-chef/jacques-torres.html)

My life-long dream is to become a pastry chef and open up my own bakery. One role model that I look up to for completing my dream is Jacques Torres. I first found out about Jacques Torres when I was on Google reading about famous pastry chefs. Out of all the other pastry chefs, what I was reading about Jacques really caught my attention. What attracts me to him is he does the same job I dream of doing. What also attracts me to him is how he helps others by training future pastry chefs, and he donates his time to many different charities, which is what makes me really look up to him.

Some people may think being a pastry chef is an easy job, but it's not. Pastry chefs use their artistic skills to make an art masterpiece out of a pastry, or dessert item. The education and training for a pastry chef varies, depending on what kind of work you’re going to be doing. The jobs vary from working in a restaurant, to working in a bakery, or making baked goods for supermarkets. All bakers need to be skilled with doing most of their work by hand. You also need to have an artistic skill, and be able to create many details in your work. You also need to have on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and classroom training. The salary outlook of the average pastry chef is $21,330. This salary changes based on where you work, how good you are, or if you’re running your own business or not.

Mr.Torres teaching a class during New York's Culi (http://www.daylife.com/topic/Jacques_Torres)

Jacques Torres is a famous pastry chef and chocolatier. He works as the Dean of Pastry Studies at New York’s French Culinary Institute. In college, Jacques earned the degree of Master Pastry Chef. As a teenager at fifteen years old, Jacques decided to try baking. He started an apprenticeship at La Frangipane, which was a small bakery in his hometown of Bandol, France. That apprenticeship led him to getting a job at the Hotel Negresco, and later on got the title of Corporate Pastry Chef by the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Later on he was invited to work at Le Cirque, one of New York’s most famous restaurants. Jacques was awarded with the M.O.F. medal, the youngest chef to earn this distinction. To follow his career path he appeared on NBC’s Today Show, as well as many other shows on the Food Network. Mr. Torres got his own show called “Dessert Circus with Jacques Torres” and wrote his own cookbook. This brought Jacques to a whole new adventure, opening his own chocolate factory in December 2000. All of his dedication to his work has brought Jacques a long way, and he is now known worldwide for his amazing work.

Jacques Torres helps others and contributes to society in many ways. He donated his time to many different charities and organizations. Some of these organizations were the American Red Cross, Meals on Wheels, God's Love We Deliver, New York’s Hard of Hearing Association, Sloan Kettering Cancer Research Center, the Association to Benefit Children, and a lot of others. Another way he helps others is by providing training for future pastry chefs in his fields of works. As you can see, Jacques contributes to the society in many different caring ways, which are also different reasons why I consider him my hero.

In order to live a life like my hero, Jacques Torres, I will try to take various cooking classes, and even bake on my own in my spare time. I will also look for a college that has a good pastry chef program, such as Le Cordon Bleu, or the French Culinary Institute. Once I graduate from college and earn my degree I would like to work in a restaurant until I earn enough money to open up my own business. My lifetime goals are to open up my own bakery and hopefully my work will be good enough to become well known. As long as I try hard, and stick to my goals, I can try to become like my hero, Jacques Torres.