A BAKER'S TYPICAL DAY








A baker’s first job of the day, is to sanitise the kitchen area and prepare the dough to make the bread, buns and other baked goods. They also clean the baking ‘bins’ and complete an inventory of the goods they need to bake. Once that’s done, the Bakers can begin to mix the ingredients needed for the products; such as whole grains and cheese for scones. Baking generally begins at 7am. Larger products, such as bread and buns are prepared in special bins. Smaller products, including cookies and muffins, are baked on trays in special ovens. The Pastries are cooked in their own special ovens.

A bakery generally opens at 9am and by this time your typical baker has already been awake for four to five hours.

In the first hour of opening, bakery shops fill with customers buying fresh bread and traditional ‘breakfast’ baked goods. Whilst the breakfast bakery items are being bought, the bakers begin making and packing the lunchtime goodies.

Just before 12pm, the kitchen is given a thorough clean in preparation for the lunchtime rush. Hygiene is of crucial importance in a kitchen, so dishes and utensils are also cleaned.

Depending on the size of the bakery, the afternoon is spent preparing ingredients and products for the next day, freezing selected stock and cleaning the kitchen – again! Smaller bakeries close their doors at 2.30pm with most staff leaving by 3pm. Larger bakeries can remain open for quite a bit longer, with staff working until after 7pm.

Due to the flexibility of working in bakery, taking a break is generally a matter of preference. Bakery employees normally get two 15 minutes breaks during the day, plus an hour for lunch. Bakers also have to be fit and strong – those heavy bags of flour don’t lift themselves! And don’t be fooled in to thinking bakers get to work in a nice warm, oven-heated environment all day. They have to make frequent trips to the freezers to store products or retrieve ingredients – this might be refreshing in the summer, but it’s not so nice on a crisp, cold winter’s day! As you can see, bakery life is a hard, but it’s varied, it’s sociable and, let’s not forget, you get to work with delicious bakery cakes, pastries and bread. What a tasty job!

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