Jason Grisold
Confectionary Fillings Chef
Jason Grisold wakes up at 5.30 in the morning, heads to work. But unlike most people he opens up twenty packets of Caramel and prepares to make 50,000 mudcakes. Jason’s job is pretty sweet: he creates the filling inside of the chocolate for Chocolatier Australia.
It seems to work in the confectionary business, you need to begin with something pretty unrelated to discover you passion for working in such a delightful industry. Jason Grisold is a confectionary filling chef, who left school wanting to work in graphic design, but found he wasn’t enjoying it as much as he’d hoped.
His Dad offered he work at his confectionary business for until he found what he really wanted to do. So, he trained under an ex-pastry chef for six months until her discovered what he really wanted to do was right in front of him. He’s now been working as the fillings chef on his own for half a year.
“It’s really challenging thinking up new chocolate, perfecting new products. The Food Technician has an idea, or I do, and we work together measuring out flavours and fillings – but it doesn’t always work out.” Jason says, “Sometimes you just need to add more flavours and it works out.” He laughs.
Now he’s studying a Certificate IV in Food Science, specialising in Confectionary at TAFE.
His job begins at 7am, where all the ingredients (such as caramel and chocolate) are poured into a mixer, after which he begins heating the mixture. He ads the flavours until it’s at its optimal temperature – then it cools off, he sieves it into buckets, where deposited into chocolate shells or cups, or chocolate bases.
On occasion, he needs to create moulded products, like Milk Powder Truffles. “Sometimes I do Nut Roasting and sugaring or making jellies.” When it’s quiet, he’s a bit of an all-rounder, and could be doing anything from egg spinning to loading chocolate. “But it isn’t quiet very often anymore!”
And, after working with chocolate all day, can he still eat it? “Yeah! Heaps!” Jason laughs, “We’re always making something different. Not doing the same thing every day: one day we’ll make a fruit and nut chocolate, and another day a raspberry cake. So it’s not like you get sick of the same thing.”
The best part of the job?
It’s nice working with the family. I like seeing the finished product, seeing the steps it takes to go through, because when it’s out the door, it looks just superb.
The challenging parts of the job?
It’s quite hard on the body, because the raw materials come in big packages, and I need to do quite a bit of physical work, like hand whisking.
The personal qualities needed?
Patience, be dedicated, have a passion for what you do, enjoy chocolate, and enjoy eating chocolate!
Advice?
You’re better off learning on-the-job, but any training is good, just get out there if you love chocolate and confectionary and do it!
