Job roles

Discussion 1
Waiting staff and bar attendants are the primary
hospitality roles involved with food and beverage
service.
Service staff may include:
Head waiter – also known as Room Supervisor
or Maître d’hôtel
Food waiters
Beverage/drink waiters
Food and beverage waiters
Runners.
It is to be expected that the job requirements for
your job will have been discussed at some length
 Head waiter
1
Organising staff for 5 Welcoming guests on arrival –
known as ‘greeting and seating’
the room/dining session
Overseeing activities during service to
Creating a table/floor
2 plan for individual 6
co-ordinate service duties, assist as
required, deal with complaints, respond to
issues as they arise
sessions
Conducting the staff 
3 7 Monitoring service standards
briefing before each Conducting de-briefings at the end of
service sessions
Liaisingsession
with all service
8
Making suggestions regarding changes to

4
operational matters, recommendations for
staff, guests and special events and advising in relation to
optimising sales and service.
 Food waiters
 Setting up of the room
 Greeting guests
 Taking orders
 Serving and clearing food
 Preparing and presenting accounts
 Receiving payment
 Farewelling guests
 Stripping the room at the end of service.
Food waiters may be required to
handle simple plated service, silver
service, semi-silver service, or
gueridon work.
‘Plated service’ refers to the
service style where food is put on
plates (‘plated’) in the kitchen and
then carried to the table.
 Beverage or drink
waiters
Beverage or drink waiters may have responsibilities for
setting up the glassware for tables and assisting food
waiters and or bar attendants in room preparation.
During service they have responsibility for:
 Taking drink orders
 Delivering drinks to the table
 Serving drinks including wine
 Making recommendations for beverages to
accompany meals
 Clearing glassware and empty bottles
 Preparing and presenting the beverage account
 Processing the drinks account
 Farewelling guests.
Food and beverage
waiters Notes
The property is small – and Th e d u t i e s
cannot afford to hire a separate involved are a
food and drink waiter combination of
th e du t i e s l i s t e d
above for the
‘Food Waiter ’
Management prefers the food t h e
and beverage service roles to a n d
‘B e v e r a g e/ D r i n k
be combined in to the one
position Waiter ’.
 Runners
 ‘Running’ dishes/meals from the kitchen
to the waiter’s station – for the waiter to
serve
 Taking used/unwanted items from the
‘Runners’
room to the kitchen for either cleaning pr o v i de a
or storing. s u pp o r t r o l e
 Preparing butters and napkins prior to for the food
service waiter. Also
 Fetching extra things for a table/waiter as
known as
required during service
 Conveying messages between waiting staff b u sb o y s /g i rls .
and/or kitchen staff
 Dealing with spills.
 Bar attendants
 Prepares the bar for service by putting away stock,
preparing/polishing glasses, cutting fruit, and
preparing drink garnishes, fruit juices and cocktail
requirements (gomme syrup, sour mix)
 Serves the beverages and mixes the drinks as
ordered by the drinks waiter
 Serves customer direct – where bar service is part
of the dining experience
 Accepts payment for drinks/wines served
 May be responsible for running the beverage
accounts, finalising individual beverage accounts
for payment and reconciling the beverage takings
 Orders stock to replenish supplies at the end of
 Formal documents
These include Position Descriptions, Job Descriptions, Job Specifications and Job Analysis sheets.
Where they exist they should:
 Set out the main activities each position is responsible for – which should provide a fairly comprehensive
list of the activities for each role
 Name specific pieces of equipment that the person needs to be able to use – this may be a point of sale
unit/register, or a hand-held ordering unit/system
 Describe the nature of any relationship that exists between the position and other positions
 Who the position reports to
 Other staff the position may be responsible for
 Date the document was created – and should be reviewed/up-dated.

Notes
many Job Descriptions usually contain a statement at the
bottom of the list of stated tasks along the lines of “Any other
work as required by management”.
This is a catch-all statement that allows management to ask
any staff member to undertake virtually any work that needs
doing even though it may not be specifically spelled out in the
 Verbal advice from others
Commonly a staff member will simply be told by experienced or senior
staff about the work they are expected to do.
This may occur as part of a formal Induction program or be part of
learning on-the-job.
The advice should:
 Identify what needs to be done
 Indicate when it needs to be done – and by when it needs to be
completed
 Describe any standards that apply to the work
 Include any special house techniques that are approved or used for
the work
 Detail any legal compliance issues that need to be observed.
 Formal on-the-job training
Where an establishment provides formal on-the-
job training, one of the first training sessions
usually covers the requirements for the job you
have been employed to do.

Checklists
Some properties provide checklists for staff to
follow to assist them in making sure that all tasks
have been completed as required for their role.
These may be posters/lists on walls in back-of-house
areas..
 Develop and maintain
product knowledge in line
with job role and
responsibilities
 Research
Research is the only way to develop and maintain product
knowledge.
The key to effective research is you have to be proactive.
You must want to find out the information and you must take
action to do so.
It is not usually the case information will seek you out – you
have to take the initiative and seek it out.
 INFORMAL RESEARCH
Informal research is not structured or formal. It almost occurs ‘by
the way’ as you do other things.Informal research occurs when you
use workplace observation, or ask another team member or
supervisor/manager about the product and services offered by the
establishment and by your competitors.
It also occurs when you obtain information from catalogues or
promotional and information material provided by suppliers, and
product manufacturers.
Other informal research options are reading F&B articles in the
local newspaper, watching F&B shows on the television, and
 FORMAL RESEARCH
Formal research is more structured and planned than informal
research.
Examples of formal research include instances when you seek out
further product information by:
 Enrolling in a recognised course at a school or training college
 Attending product launches and promotions conducted by
growers, manufacturers and/or suppliers
 Attending seminars or industry nights where certain
aspects/products are the focus of the session – and where you can
grow your network of industry contacts.
WORKPLACE
OBSERVATION
Staff can learn a great deal about products and services by
observing the workplace and obtaining customer feedback.
This information can also be used to evaluate products,
services and promotional incentives offered by the
establishment.
Observation in the workplace may include:
 Being aware of new products and services offered on
menus and drink list
 Being aware of product returns – that is being aware of
which products are frequently returned, and finding out why
 Familiarising yourself with promotional displays and printed
materials – so you understand the information the venue is
providing to customers
 Speaking with other team members about the services and
products they are familiar with – so you can benefit from
their knowledge and experience
 Observing customers' reactions to a particular product or
service – do they appear to like the new drink or not? Do
diners seem happy with the new food items on the new
menu? How pleased/displeased are they with the
new/higher prices?
 Need for a particular
focus
For any research, questioning or observation to be successful it must be
done with one (or more) specific purposes in mind – you must have a
definite idea of what you want to find out about.
 It is also good to know ‘why’ you want to know this information.
 To obtain customer feedback the following have proved effective
strategies to use:
 Ask a customer for their comments after they have bought, eaten or
consumed a product/drink
 Seek written feedback by distributing ‘Customer
Comment/Feedback’ cards and encouraging customers to compete
and return them – these cards can be written to request feedback on
any topic of interest/concern to you
 Advise patrons (where applicable) of your online ‘Tell Us What You
Think’ feedback facility – and encourage them to provide feedback
using this option
 Talk to customers – as part of their dining/drinking experience and
ask them questions designed to elicit information about topics you
 What should I develop and
maintain knowledge about?
 Current market trends – identifying new products, determining
what is gaining in popularity and learning what is losing
popularity/flagging in sales
 Local area products – this means knowing what is
produced/grown locally and keeping in touch with developments
in F&B produced by local growers and/or businesses: many
tourists to venues are eager to sample the ‘local product’ and you
need to know what is local and what is not

 Seasonal produce – learning, for example which products are

in season, and when fruit and vegetables come in, and go out of,
season
 Enterprise menus and specials – talking to chefs and
participating in tastings at work is essential so you can
accurately pass on information to customers based on real-life,
personal experience of the food/drinks
 SHARING KNOWLEDGE
FORMAL SHARING
Informal sharing   Passing on information at a
 Talking to colleagues casually staff meeting
while at work or during work  Sharing what you know with
breaks other employees at daily
 Telling people in a random briefing and de-briefing
manner about the information sessions
 Developing a written
you found out
handout containing the
 Replying to question by
information – and
including the new information distributing it to other
as part of the response. workers.
Features of specific food
and beverages which
have potential customer
appeal
You must be able to describe the special features of F&B items in order to:
 Meet customer expectations – patrons  Increase the likelihood of extra
business – the more you know and
expect you to know about this: they will
the better you can advise customers,
rely on you to advise them, provide the greater the likelihood of those
information and make customers returning for another
recommendations/suggestions meal/drink and the greater the
 Optimise sales – the more you know about chance they will tell their friends
what you have to sell, the more likely you and family to come
will be to make increased sales.  Meet management expectations –
Knowledge is not only power but it also management expects all customer-
usually translated into revenue and profit contact staff to be sales people and
 Enhance the customer experience – the product knowledge is the key to
being able to do this effectively
more you can talk intelligently and
 Demonstrate a focus on the customer
professionally with customers, the more
and their dining experience – as
they will enjoy the experience and the opposed to focussing on (just) what
higher the levels of satisfaction the venue wants to sell/achieve.
Features to focus on:

 The relationship between

specific foods and
beverages
 Knowledge of specific
foods
 Knowledge of specific
 Products
beverages sourced from the
local area
 Enterprise menus, specials
and trends.
The relationship between
specific foods and
beverages
You should develop knowledge about
the foods on your menu and the
beverages which work well together
with them.
You should be able to recommend at
least one generic ‘food and beverage’
match/combination for every item on
you menu.
Matches are commonly food and wine,
or food and beer combinations.
Some venues:
 List possible matches on their
menus
 Have a poster behind the bar
listing possible matches.
 knowledge of specific foods
These menus may differ:
 Between meals – the lunch menu may be different to
the dinner menu
 On days of the week – the food offered on weekends
may differ to the menu items offered on week days
 Dependant on menu types – there is always a
difference between menu items listed on table d’hôte, à
la carte and function menus
 knowledge of specific foods
 Characteristics of dishes – which can include capturing details about aspects
such as:
 Taste
 Aroma
 Consistency (tactile/in-mouth) of the product
 Special growing/feeding of livestock
 Cut of meat/part of the animal used
 Cooking style
 Time to prepare – or is the item already cooked and ready to serve?
 Service options – is the dish available just as main course, or can it also be
served as an entrée? Is it available only for eat-in dining or can it be served as a
take-away dish?
 knowledge of specific foods
 origin of
 The ingredients in the dish – which are local, which are
national and which are imported?
 The name of the dish – if the dish has a special name, what
was the origin of that name?
 Opinions (from experts and customers) – in relation to their
opinion of taste and value-for-money
 Cultural and dietary aspects – identifying those for whom the
dish would be acceptable/suitable and those for whom it
would not be.
 knowledge of specific beverages
 The alcohol strength for all alcoholic beverages
 The country of origin of products
 Prices – for individual drinks and full bottles/units
 Different (standard) serve sizes of drinks and packaged products
 Taste
 Colour
 Special characteristics – for example, the gold flakes in Goldwasser or the worm in
certain tequilas
 Vintages available – for the wines
 Prizes/awards won by wines, spirits and beers
 Uses for wines, spirits and liqueurs (as applicable) – such as:
 Beverages which can be served ‘neat’
 Mixed drinks – knowledge of the mixers which can be used with spirits
 Cocktails
 Cooking or other food-related uses
 Products sourced from the local area
‘Local’ has two meanings in this context:
 The immediate region – any place which is close by
 The country in which you live – anywhere in the country can
be referred to as ‘local’.
To help the local economy and promote local products you must
identify:
 Local wines, beers and other alcoholic and non-alcoholic
beverages
 Locally ‘processed’ items
 Raw materials/ingredients/food/products grown or raised
 Products sourced from the local area
 Information you should strive to learn includes:
 Names of the products and their characteristics (flavour,
appearance)
 Names of growers/providers and their location – and how to
get there
 Quantities/packages available for sale to the public
 Whether there are customs restrictions on tourists taking these
products out of the country
 Cost
 How they are/may be eaten or consumed
 Popularity of items with nationals/locals
 Enterprise menus, specials and trends
Menus
 Your knowledge of items must include information about:
 Serve size
 Taste – ‘hot’, ‘spicy’, ‘creamy’, ‘bitter’
 Which items are ‘fresh’ and which are pre-prepared/frozen and
reconstituted
 Dishes which are cooked and ready-to-serve – and the cooking
time or waiting time for other items
 Items which may be served as main course and entrée
 Ingredients
 ‘Cooking or preparation style
 Cultural and dietary acceptability.
 Enterprise menus, specials and trends
Specials
 Specials are items (or menus) only available for a limited time, to celebrate
a certain event (a public holiday or religious event; a wedding or party)
and/or as part of a package deal a visitor may have purchased.
 Your knowledge of specials must embrace:
 Items available as part of the special deal – food and beverages
 When the special begins – and when it finished
 Cost
 Who is eligible for the special – the special may be available to everyone
or only to nominated categories of people (such as tour group members;
those attending a wedding)
 What makes the special, special – is it the special low price? Is it the
great value-for-money? Is it the dishes or drinks which are featured?
 Enterprise menus, specials and trends
Trends
It is useful to understand the local or venue-specific
trends which apply to food and beverages as this
knowledge can be used to:
 Make recommendation about food and drinks
 Engage customers in conversation
 Demonstrate your professionalism in the industry and
your job
 Further determine emerging trends – trends by their
Thank You