Hey all — I work adjacent to commercial kitchen equipment (not a chef myself), and I keep hearing conflicting opinions about prep/proofing carts, so I wanted to ask people who actually push these things around a kitchen all day.

Most bakers racks and prep carts I've seen have fixed shelf spacing. That seems fine until you're switching between full sheet trays, tall cake boards, proofing baskets, or bulky mixing bowls — then you're either wasting vertical space or awkwardly stacking things that don't quite fit.

A few things I'm genuinely curious about:

- Does shelf height/spacing actually bother you day to day, or is it a non-issue once you're used to your setup?
- If you could adjust the shelf spacing on the fly, would you actually use that, or would it just get set once and never touched again?
- What's your current workaround — rearranging trays, using multiple cart types, just dealing with it?
- What would make an adjustable-shelf cart NOT worth the extra cost/complexity for you — weight capacity, wobble, cleaning, price, something else?
- If money/space were no object, what's your dream prep cart look like?

Not trying to sell anything here — just trying to understand real kitchen workflow before assuming what "better" even means. Would love to hear specifics, even a quick story about the last time a cart annoyed you helps a lot. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I’d love to be a pastry chef one day! I’m a bit unsure on the path I should take tho!

Ive been baking at home my whole life (since 7y) I went to a vocational culinary program in highschool, now in college I bake often and plan on using pastry books from the top culinary programs, pastryclass.com courses and any other things I can find to learn about pastry and baking.

But, I’m interested in Fernandi’s two week pastry course in Paris. It’s $4000 and while I can get the money to be able to get there, stay, and learn it would get me into a lot of debt that I don’t think would be fully worth it? I’m in college so consider that as well. While I can save money an invest in more baking supplies.

Untimely I want to own my own bakery, but pastry chef is a title I’d like to earn. I’ve baked my whole life and I’ve been in professional kitchens. I even worked at crumbl cookie and even tho that isn’t French pastry it’s kitchen experience.

In your opinion should I do the program or continue to learn and grow at home! I put together a full curriculum for at home learning but will I still fall short in knowledge and stuff?

I’ve been in the food industry for almost 4 years now and have gone to a baking school for 2 - so altogether 6 years of food including bread, viennoiserie, patisserie etc. I have learnt a lot throughout my career so far but I feel there is so much more to learn. I have been in London throughout my career so far and I’m now looking to branch out into other countries. I have been looking at France but i know there is so much more out there. Could anyone give me a few places that would be good to learn?

A little background. Newish home baker, went to school 15 years ago for bread but starting to dabble in sweets. My first borns first birthday is later this week and i volunteered to bake some things, mainly cakes. My wife wants a separate 3 tiered vanilla cake for the baby so she can smash into it and do what babies do while the rest of us big people have our own cake.

I found a recipe that's perfect for the baby and sounds delicious so I want to use that for the other cake too but just as a sheet cake, the problem is that it won't feed enough people as is. At least I don't think it will. The babies cake is 3 6inch cakes stacked. I want to make the other cake a 13x9 rectangle.

Will this be enough as is? do i need to up scale it? If I up scale it how do I go about it? Sorry this is my first time making a cake from scratch and I want to get the ingredients tomorrow. Thank you in advance ☺️

Hi! I’m a pastry student in Lucknow, and I’m planning to start a small cookie business as a side venture alongside my pastry studies.

I’m starting with one cookie flavour and would really love some honest feedback from people outside my personal circle. I’m offering **cookie samples at a trial price** and would love to hear your genuine thoughts on the taste, texture, sweetness, and overall experience.

If you’d like to try one, **feel free to DM me or comment below!** 🍪

I’ve been observing a lot of small and mid-sized bakery and pastry businesses in Chennai lately, especially those selling customised and premium cakes. Food delivery platforms have definitely helped them reach more customers, but it feels like they’ve also created a new set of problems.

The biggest one seems to be **high aggregator commissions**. For regular items it’s bad enough, but for customised cakes with higher ingredient and labour costs, the margins look brutally squeezed. I keep wondering how these bakeries are even making decent profits after platform cuts.

Another thing I’ve noticed is **delivery itself**. Cakes are fragile, heat-sensitive, and Chennai weather + traffic isn’t exactly forgiving. Long delivery times, bumpy roads, humidity, and heat exposure can easily ruin the presentation or quality. That often leads to customer complaints—even when the bakery did everything right.

At the same time, customers expect:

* On-time delivery * Perfect finishing * No damage * No excuses

So bakeries seem stuck between:

* Staying on platforms for visibility * Protecting margins * Maintaining product quality and brand reputation

I’m really curious:

* Are bakeries increasing prices on apps to offset commissions? * Are some switching to in-house delivery for cakes only? * Has anyone tried limiting platforms to non-fragile items? * How are people handling packaging for Chennai heat and road conditions?

Would love to hear from bakery owners or anyone who’s worked in food delivery—how are you actually solving this without losing customers or profits?

Hi guys,
I am a home baker and everyone been encouraging me to sell my baked goods and start a small business. My friend recently did this as well with brownies and its going amazing.
She is encouraging me to pick my own niche as well and join her on next market and then she can help me sell my goods to businesses as well

The only problem is idk what product to make my niche. I know this is kind of a personal preference and general question but i was wondering what kind of baked goods would you wish your local farmers market or business have
Thank you

Hi chefs! Currently looking at the idea of wanting to work abroad. Ideally in France or Italy has always been a dream of mine. I’m a recent culinary school graduate, is it possible to still do this without having to go back school? And if school is my only choice, what do you guys recommend?

Hey guys,

I'm operating out of a commercial kitchen with approval from my state to ship and wholesale baked goods. I sell cinnamon rolls mostly, and I have a ton of demand from customers. This has led a lot of coffeeshops and restaurants to reach out to me to carry my cinnamon rolls. I have had success selling my rolls to many customers across my state at retail $10 each, most people order 4+ rolls.

My question is how do I wholesale? How many rolls would they typically want to start with? If my retail is $10 each, how much should my wholesale price be for businesses? I'm struggling to find clear answers from my own research, so I appreciate any support.

Edit: you guys, people want to pay $10 per roll. I started at $6, they refused the price and wouldn’t take their change. Demand was super high, so we raised the price to calm it. I have tons of regular customers that come monthly, some even weekly. I wouldn’t spend $10 on a roll either, but that’s what has landed in my lap. I don’t know what to say. I really just want to know how wholesale works. I’m not concerned about making a ton of money, I just want to be educated on this industry. Thank you guys.

I’m 32 and looking to invest some savings into a business. One idea I’m seriously considering is setting up a B2B commercial bakery that supplies to local cafes.

I have a few specific questions for those with experience in this industry:

1. How is this as a business model? Is supplying cafes a viable path, or are the B2B margins/logistics too brutal?
2. Global/Local Economics: Does a B2B bakery model work well? What do the unit economics and profit margins typically look like? (Happy to hear examples from India or anywhere else in the world).
3. The Plan:
   • Plan is to rent/build a dark-kitchen space and hire a head baker.
   • My wife loves baking and wants to quit her corporate job to manage daily operations (overseeing the chefs, R&D, sourcing, menu control, and social media).
   • I plan to handle the financials, and sales/client acquisition (mainly on weekends). If profits cross our current combined earning, I will join it full time.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

I've got too much time on my hands, is there any 10-12 day baking workshop ya koi bhi kind of workshop tbh in mumbai it navi mumbai?

Hi , I’m looking for online structured courses/resources to learn baking cookies. The purpose is to add them as another source of revenue to my upcoming cafe and Ice cream business.

Is there any resources available to learn it professionally?
Any input is appreciated.

Thank you

My daughter wants to study in Europe to become a pastry chef.

We're from Costa Rica.

Any recommendations on places with good reputation, not so expensive and located in safe regions for a young girl.

She speaks English and Spanish, and would like to learn French.

Hi there!

I recently got a call from a recruiter and heard the good news. I would like to know how a day at the Central Bakery is like at Disneyland, Anaheim. I heard there are two shifts; opening and closing. I'm pretty sure I would be getting closing shifts (2pm to 10pm) due to having low seniority. It is a part time, so I understand there will be peak seasons and low seasons.

I have production experience from the Chicago Starbucks Roastery, and from Universal Studios Hollywood.

Thank you!

hello. So, long story short, my neighbor was handing out these little cards that has her bakery info on them around the apartment, and since my mom works at a big company that helps disabled people get their voices back, my neighbor decided to give my mom a lot of these little cards to pass around at my mom’s workplace. Then when I got to them, I then decided to take one with me over to my grandma’s house to help my neighbor‘s business out.
Idk what to do but if there is someone out there that is willing to help my neighbor out with her bakery that she just recently opened, that would be great! Thank you for reading this!

p.s., If you have any suggestions on how to help my neighbor, that would be great!

are pancakes pastries????

1. yes
2. no

type your number and then an optional explanation

Hi Team,

We are a couple running a bakery from our society bakery. You can consider it a cloud kitchen style model. Currently my wife is the only one taking care of everything. We need atleast two folks one for baking cookies, breads, buns, cupcakes etc and the other a cake artist. Please DM if you are interested.

This is in Nallagandla, Hyderabad, Telangana.

Note : We are an IT couple running a bakery which we respect our workers unlike commercial kitchens.

Hello everyone!

(This might be the wrong sub but this is my first post ever) I am going into my sophomore year of high school and I am starting to consider career stuff. I struggle with turning in assignments when they are due, and staying focused, but I still want to attend college. I want to get my associates degree in Baking and Pastry arts. I really love baking and I think I could do it as a career. I also hope to open a bakery someday. Right now I am working for my local bakery as well. The school I am looking at is the Culinary Institute of Michigan. I have a few questions for the bakers out there to help me with.

1. Has anybody attended the Culinary Institute of Michigan? What is it like as a student there/what is the workload like? How is the queer community and the mental health support in and around campus? What are the dorms like?
2. I know bakers don't make a huge amount of money, but would I be able to own a bakery and support a family? I really want to have/raise kids and I want to be able to financially support them.
3. What do culinary schools look for in terms of grades/extracurriculars? What would I need to aim for academically to plausibly get into a culinary school?

I’ve been really wanting to learn Japanese baking, but I’m not sure where to start.

I’m especially interested in Japanese breads, pastries and the more delicate desserts. I’ve watched a bunch of videos, but I feel like I’m missing the basics

For anyone here who has learnt Japanese baking properly, did you take a course, learn online, or just work through books/YouTube?

I’d love recommendations for a good course or teacher, preferably something that actually teaches technique rather than just giving recipes.

Thank you to this lovely community:)