A pastry chef or pâtissier is a station chef in a professional kitchen, skilled in the making of pastries, desserts, breads and other baked goods. They are employed in large hotels, bistros, restaurants, and bakeries.

The pastry chef is a member of the classic brigade de cuisine in a professional kitchen and is the station chef of the pastry department. As with other station chefs, the pastry chef may have other chefs or assistants within their department. Bakers may also be members of the pastry department in bakeries and larger establishments such as hotels.

Day-to-day operations can also require the pastry chef to research recipe concepts and develop and test new recipes. Usually the pastry chef does all the necessary preparation of the various desserts in advance, before dinner seating begins. The actual plating of the desserts is often done by another station chef, usually the Garde manger, at the time of order. The pastry chef is often in charge of the dessert menu, which besides traditional desserts, may include dessert wines, specialty dessert beverages, and gourmet cheese platters.

Here are the list of the most top calibrated, inspirational pastry chefs are currently (in alphabetcial order):

Albert Adria , Alex Stupak , Ben Roche , Bill Corbett, Claudia Flemming, Dominique Ansel , Florian Bellanger , Francois Payard , Gina Depalma , Jean-Francois Bonnet, Johnny Iuzzini , Jordan Kahn , Kate Zuckerman, Michael Holland , Oriol Balaguer , Paco Torreblanca, Pierre Hermé , Pichet Ong , Rick Billings, Sam Mason , Sebastian Rouxel, Stephane Treand, Will Goldfarb

• Friberg, Bo (1996) The Professional Pastry Chef 3:rd edition ISBN 0-442-01597-6
• http://www.allculinaryschools.com/faqs/baking.php