A Week at Work!

Year 10 Work Experience Week

Harry Lalor

Year 10

Work Experience - Lune Croissanterie

Since I have a passion for cooking, I wanted to see what it would be like to work in a busy commercial kitchen.  I e so I applied to 10 pastry shops. All of them but one rejected my enquiry: Lune.   

I went in for an interview and was accepted for work experience - the first time that Lune has hosted a student! I was super lucky, as Lune is a high-end pastry croissanterie. From that moment I was really excited to start work experience there!

After arriving for the first day at Lune, I was put straight into slicing the croissants, sugar glazing, piping an almond frangipane onto over 500 croissant bases a day, sealing the croissants, piping more almond frangipane onto the top of the croissant, and lastly topping with almond chips. 

From the start, my supervisor made sure that I knew what my responsibilities were. While on my placement  my duties included weighing and separating over 250 eggs per day, cutting a 15kg block of butter  into smaller, exact portions (twice a day) - and I grated over 60 blocks of gruyere cheese over the course of the week!

Being on work experience I got to do things that you [normally] need lots of experience to do. I was very lucky that [my supervisor] let me make a lemon curd, make an almond and rum syrup, roll some pastries and observe in 'The Cube', where all the pastry is shaped and made). I even got to egg-wash some of the pastries and  I helped to make the lemon cruffins (croissant muffins)! Usually, to do the jobs I got to do,  you need 5 years of 

experience as a chef, plus  6 months of additional training. 

I really appreciated the opportunities that Lune gave me to get a 'taste' for a career in this highly specialised food industry.

Toward the end of my work experience week, I was called into the Head Chefs office and offered a part-time job at Lune. Obviously, I accepted it! 

Overall work experience at Lune was a 10/10 experience. Work Experience Week was such a great way to help me to understand what I want to do after secondary school.