Nicolas is French and single and looks very young. I thought at first this job in Hong Kong is his first, but I was wrong. This job in Hong Kong is his 4th. He has worked in Scotland, Hamburg and St Barts in the Caribbean.
When he's talking about his work, he sounds very confident about what he's doing. He seems to have no fear of ever becoming jobless. Perhaps that's because he knows he has a skill that will always be needed in French cafes/restaurants located overseas, specially the financial centers of the world.
As Nicolas was taking over his new job as chef baker in a Hong Kong cafe, another story started to unfold and I think it's a story too good not to tell. The guy whom he replaced, Florent (also French), left for New York where he had set his eyes on opening his own bakery. According to Nicolas, Florent had visited New Yoirk once before with his girlfriend (who is American) and as soon as he went around New York, he knew immediately it was the place where he wanted to open his bakery.
Florent's bakery/cafe is in Brooklyn, New York. Florent has mentioned to Nicolas that his business is doing better than he had anticipated. He employs two sales staff at his shop.
Florent is now financially independent and free and he's only 31 years old! He is unbeholden to anyone for the work that he does. He doesn't have to worry about offending or being fired by his boss because he is the boss!
Nicolas and Florent, they both opted to train as bakers instead of going to university. The training school they went to in France is free. They don't have any student loan to pay for. They're free to save whatever they earn.
Will Nicolas want to open his own bakery? Maybe one day. But right now, he's still too young and he wants to travel some more.
Nicolas followed in the footsetps of his older brother. He saw his brother train as a baker and seen how his brother has always found work in the world's biggest capitals. Nicolas admits that if his brother hadn't taken the path of being a baker, he, himself would not have gone to train as a baker.
According to Nicolas, the training school that he went to is very common and can be found all over France. It is run by the French government. It is free to all French nationals. The only thing Nicolas had to buy for himself was a set of baking tools that included items like a rolling pin, a spatula, some brushes etc.
The training school provides two-year training courses. At the end of two years, a certificate is awarded. There is also the option to learn more by putting in extra time. Nicolas said he opted to stay for one more year to learn about bread making in other countries around the world.
You'd think that when such a course is free, students would stick around. But it's not so. Nicolas says in his first year, there were about 23 of them in his baking class. By the time he was in his second year, only one half of his classmates remained.
Nicolas said he had regular subjects like math and history and english for 4 days a week followed by one day at the school's baking classroom. And this baking classroom is fully-equipped and modern. After a week at the school, this is followed by two weeks at a bakery where he is an apprentice. He got paid a small amount of money for his work. And then it's back to another week in the school classroom.
There is a dormitory for students who live far away. Nicolas said that he didn't have to stay in a dormitory because he lived with his mother.
Nicolas is now Head Chef-Baker at a Boulangerie in Hong Kong. He won't say what his salary is this year. I believe it is around HK$40K/month(€4,700 / US$5,000)
It pays well, but it's not an easy job. "Do you know how many hours I work a week? 60!" says Nicolas. He works 12 hours a day and in fact, sometimes he has to work more than 12 hours. He doesn't get overtime pay.
In Scotland in 2015; monthly salary: €1,800
In Hamburg, Germany in 2016; monthly salary: €1400 (net after taxes)
It was here that he learned how to make basic pastries from his boss.
St Barts in the Caribbean in 2017; monthly salary: €2,000
Nicolas shared a villa with other staff for free. He had his own room. "There are so many empty villas in St Barts !" says Nicolas. St Barts bored Nicolas. He said it was just an island where tourists would come and go. There
was no city life.
