The Next Generation of Bakers Didn’t Learn the Same Way We Did
The baking industry is facing a challenge few people are talking about honestly enough.
Today’s young culinary professionals are entering kitchens with talent, creativity, and passion—but many are missing foundational communication and workplace skills previous generations learned naturally along the way.
And according to Kristen Egan, the issue isn’t laziness. It’s a developmental disruption.
On a recent episode of The Perfect Rise, Chef Egan joined Kimberly Houston for a conversation that evolved far beyond pastry. What started as a discussion about fine dining and culinary education quickly became a larger conversation about workforce development, mentorship, burnout, and the future of craftsmanship inside the baking industry.
One of the most important moments came when Chef Egan identified what she believes is one of the biggest struggles among young pastry professionals today:
Listening. Not creativity. Not their work ethic. Not their lack of ambition. Listening to verbal instruction, retaining information, and executing tasks independently in fast-paced kitchen environments. For many bakery owners and educators, this frustration sounds familiar.
But Kimberly Houston connected the issue to something larger happening across the workforce. Students currently entering culinary schools and bakeries were in critical developmental years when COVID shut classrooms down. Many missed formative experiences tied to communication, note-taking, problem-solving, and social development.
That reality is fundamentally changing how educators and bakery leaders must approach training.
Technical Skills Alone Are No Longer Enough
Throughout the conversation, Chef Egan repeatedly emphasized the importance of slowing down and mastering fundamentals before chasing titles or leadership positions.
Her advice to young graduates was direct: Do not rush into becoming a sous chef immediately after culinary school.
Instead, she encouraged students to spend time working as pastry cooks, learning systems, repetition, communication, consistency, and technical discipline under experienced chefs.
It’s a perspective increasingly relevant in an industry where many businesses are struggling to develop leadership pipelines while simultaneously managing labor shortages and burnout.
The conversation also highlighted an uncomfortable truth:
The industry cannot assume young professionals automatically know workplace expectations anymore.
Those expectations now need to be taught intentionally.
Pastry Is Quietly Losing Its Place in Restaurants
Another major theme throughout the episode was Chef Egan’s concern about the declining role of dedicated pastry programs in restaurants.
More operations are eliminating pastry chef positions entirely and relying on simplified dessert menus or savory teams to produce desserts instead.
For Chef Egan, that shift represents more than changing menus. It represents the gradual erosion of craftsmanship.
She described recent restaurant experiences where desserts felt like afterthoughts rather than fully developed culinary experiences—simple cakes with sauce instead of intentional pastry programs built around texture, balance, acidity, and technical execution.
Her perspective reflects a larger concern shared by many pastry professionals:
When restaurants stop investing in pastry talent, the industry loses an important layer of artistry and specialization.
Why Mentorship Still Matters
One of the strongest throughlines of the episode was the importance of mentorship at every stage of a culinary career.
Chef Egan spoke openly about the chefs who shaped her early career, the standards they upheld, and the environments that pushed her technically while also exposing her to multiple areas of pastry production.
That mentorship later became critical when preparing for the Certified Master Baker exam, where collaboration, guidance, and honest feedback played a major role in her success.
For an industry currently facing staffing challenges, educator shortages, and leadership turnover, the message is timely:
The future of baking will depend heavily on whether experienced professionals are willing to intentionally train the next generation.
The industry is changing—but standards still matter.
What made this conversation resonate wasn’t nostalgia. It was honesty. Chef Egan acknowledged that the industry is changing. Young professionals communicate differently. Career expectations are shifting. Burnout is real. Entrepreneurship isn’t sustainable for everyone.
But throughout the conversation, one theme remained constant: Standards still matter. Technique still matters. Craftsmanship still matters. Mentorship still matters.
And perhaps now more than ever, the baking industry has an opportunity to decide what kind of professionals it wants to develop moving forward.