I believe there is a big difference between Bakers and Cooks. Bakers follow recipes like a scientist. Their concerns are with exact ingredients so they use metric measuring equipment, they adjust recipes to account for ambient temperature, and watch for chemical and biological reactions. Cooks are like artists that use a recipe as a guideline, like pavement markers telling you where the lane is. But often, while they end up at the right destination, they have changed lanes quite a few times, rode someones bumper, and turned off on some ramps for quick stops.
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Bakers + Cooks
LeFoodist writes a basic truth shared by Bakers and Chefs: Chefs and bakers often work long hours for low pay in competitive, high-stress environments, so only those who are truly passionate about the culinary arts should attempt to pursue them as a full-time job.
BruceTurkel writes: At first glance, cooking and baking seem to be different sides of the same coin. They both require various edible ingredients. They both require skill and knowledge. They both call for cutting, chopping, mixing, and stirring. And they both can create good things to eat.
Cooks, in general, make food using various cooking techniques that fall into three broad areas: dry heat cooking, wet heat cooking, and a combination of both.
- DRY: Broiling, grilling, roasting, baking, frying, and sautéing.
- WET: Poaching, simmering, boiling, and steaming.
- DRY-WET COMBO: Braising and stewing,
To cooks, “baking” is just one of the many cooking techniques used to prepare meals. And like many generalists, they know a lot about many techniques, but cannot delve into very deep levels of each. At the same time, their their cooking efforts utilize ingredient substitutions and improvisations, so they certainly need to know a lot about ingredients, spices, herbs and techniques..
But bakers, take that one technique, baking, to make savory or sweet doughs and batter-based foods in the oven. Bakers may not be good cooks, and cooks may not be good bakers. However, as food preparation experts, they do have a slight overlap in their abilities.
- Cooks do make dough or batter foods such as: loafs, flat breads, cornbread, cookies, muffins, pancakes, waffles, dumplings, and pies.
- But bakers make these items, plus a variety of breads, scones, croissants, cakes, and all the other pastries.
Precise Bakers + Improv Cooks
Cooking allows for lots of substitutions, improvisation, and it is thus easier to recover from mistakes or lack of proper ingredients. Cooks roughly measure ingredients in the USA, measuring by cups and ounces. Cooks do not calculate temperatures, they are only concerned about food temps for meats they are cooking, and they just need to reach a particular temp (based on the type of meat) that indicates it has been safely cooked.
Baking involves precision, and mistakes may mean throwing away the dough. Without the proper ingredients it cannot be done. Bakers weigh ingredients to 2 decimal points, and measure in grams. They calculate temperatures for dough. For instance they will measure existing air temperature, minus the temperature they want for the dough (75-78°F) = how hot the liquid needs to be to add to the flour and yeast to make the dough.
Science + Art = The Cooking Craft
It is the basic difference between art and science. Both are crafts, both use a kitchen and kitchen tools (cookware, ovens, steamers, herbs, spices, veggies + fruit, etc.), but their focus is different.
Bakers Bake Everything
They make various doughs and batters to bake everything you can imagine. I believe it is possible for a very good baker to not be a good cook. They use doughs that have raised through fermentation (like yeast) or via the addition of leaveners (like baking soda or baking powder). They use batters for crepes and pastries. They are experts in the science of baking.
Here are some types of doughs these experts make, this is not a list of everything, just enough to provide a good distinction between bakers and cooks.
Fermented Doughs
- Pizzas
- Pretzels
- Beignets
- Bread Dough, Sourdough Bread, Baguette, Ciabatta, Focaccia, Rolls
Unleavened Dough
- Pies
- Tortillas
- Flatbreads
- Crackers
- Pasta
Laminated Pastry Dough
- Puff Pastry
- Phyllo Dough
- Leavened version of a laminated pastry is a Croissant
Non-Laminated Pastry Dough
- Profiteroles
- Eclairs
- Pie Dough
- Leavened version of a non-laminated pastry is a Brioche
Basic Baking Ingredients
Baking uses the some common ingredients to make a variety of doughs or batters. Of course not all of these items are in each batter or dough, but here are some of the common ingredients in the tool kit.
- Eggs: egg yolk provides emulsification, structure is provided by the protein in egg whites, and moisture from both.
- Flour: provides structure and in bread gluten-structure.
- Milk or Water: milk protein provides moisture, softens dough, and gives color, and flavor while water provides hydration of gluten + starch, and dissolves salts.
- Butter or Oil: is the fat that provides flavor, aids moisture and leavening properties.
- Sugar: aids flavor, keeps the food soft and moist, and can caramelize under heat, also it contributes to strucure and leavening.
- Yeast or Leavening Agents: Yeast are live microscopic organisms used in baking as a leavening agent, causing dough to rise by converting fermentable sugars in the dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol.
These days there are options to these ingredients. For instance in some recipes I use flax meal with water to replace eggs, or I may play with the type of flour (including gluten free flour), butter can be replaced with any fat, and sugar can come in many variations of powders or liquids. But you cannot just switch ingredients, for any change to a recipe may significantly change the outcome of the baked food.
Cooks Bake Somethings
Cooks do limited to no work with doughs (especially fermented doughs), but do a lot with batters and unleavened dough. There are many recipes cooks follow that require doughs (spanakopita, tarts, pastry, etc.), where we tend to rely on others to make the dough for us.
Cooking Doughs
Cooks generally buy the items listed below from the grocery’s freezer. After-all, why spend the time making things we are not that good at, when it can be bought.
- Puff pasty
- Phyllo dough
- Pre-made pizza dough
- Pasta
- Pre-made pie crust
- Bread
- Tortillas
But some cooks do make one thing or the other that, through repetition, are now good at making. So, for me I will make these:
- Pie dough is not that hard to make following a recipe, but it is kinda messy.
- Soda Bread is not hard to make, but mine are not always tasty.
- I do attempt to make the occasional Focaccia bread pizza.
- I can make scones, although I am inconsistent.
- I am still working on German bread pretzels.
Desserts
Some basic desserts, not necessarily pastries, can be easily made by a cook.
- Cookies, muffins or cupcakes.
- Shortcake for Strawberry Shortcake.
- Cooks always make their own loafs, here are the ones I have made over the last few years.
Liquid Doughs
Cooks often do well with liquid batters. So we also can make the following.
- Waffles, Pancakes, Crepes
- Cornbread
- Flat breads: Socca, Farinata
- Seed and Nut Bread
- Crackers: Cheese Crackers
- German Pasta: Spaetzle
Photo by PattyCooks.
My Baking Stories
I have said many times I am not a baker. It is not that I take pride in that statement, but it is the plain truth. The reason why is that I am not attentive enough to the details to follow a recipe exactly and do not have a feel for all the aspects of temperature, humidity, and such that plays an important part in baking.
- Chef Gabby (who is very good with pastries) asked me to watch him make a pattern on some cookies he had made, so I could finish the rest of the sheet pan. I watched and attempted to follow what he did. “Hmmm, not very observant, are you,” was his comment, after my poor attempt. He then showed me what he did again, and this time talked about it, and only then could I follow his directions.
- I supported Baker Michael Kalanty during his baking class and unintentionally screwed up the measurements of flour (did okay with all the other ingredients: salt, butter, yeast, milk). Honestly, I thought I had measured them to the precise amounts he gave me. Like many who live and breathe their craft, he was very upset with me, and dramatically made his displeasure known to everyone in the class.
I already knew I was not a baker, and these two experiences just made my understanding clearer. When I do work with baking things outside my cook-level, I rely on someone who knows what they are doing. Luckily, when at Kitchen on Fire, where I was under supervision, a Baker was worrying about all the science. So given those circumstances, I can say that I have made pizza dough, a generic yeast dough for rolls, soda bread, pie crust, and fruit scones. All the food came out good.
At home I continue to work on my pretzels. Last time, I had the right flavor, was real close to the texture, but could not get the dough right so the pretzels became blobs rather than the nice formed curves and crosses it usually has. See what I mean, it takes time, and a scientific approach to be a good baker.
—Patty
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