At the International Culinary Center in California and New York, known for turning out acclaimed pastry chefs like Christina Tosi, of Milk Bar, and Melissa Weller, the founder of Sadelle’s bakery in SoHo, architecture plays a significant role in the curriculum, thanks to Mr. Chan, 42, and his architectural background.

Since 2015, the second half of the school’s six-month pastry program has incorporated lessons on sketching, making timelines and project planning. Mr. Chan added a chapter called “Elements of Design” to the school’s textbook; it teaches students about architectural principles like dynamism and scale in relation to dessert.

Mr. Chan said a number of students have recently come to the school from the architecture world. “They have a much easier time at adapting because they are used to being asked questions. They are better able to express their creative ideas,” he said. “Pastry students with no design backgrounds will be the ones to draw a tall chocolate structure with nothing holding it up.”

Mr. Chan has also introduced technology into pastry education — tools like lasers, which can be used to bake and pipe batter at the same time, and water-jet cutters, used by architects to slice through sheet metal and by large-scale patisseries and hotels for cutting cakes into precise, programmed shapes in the half the time it would take a person to complete.