FOOD SERVICE AREAS (F & B OUTLETS)

FOOD SERVICE AREAS (F & B OUTLETS)

Specialty Restaurants

A specialty restaurant is one where the entire atmosphere and décor is geared to a particular theme, normally related to a regional cuisine e.g. Chinese, India, Japanese, French. Indian restaurant have the following features:

·         Indian motifs on the wall

·         Indian artifacts

·         Staff will wear Indian costumes

·         Music if recorded will play Indian music.

·         Crockery, cutlery, glassware will have an Indian design.

Coffee Shop

The coffee shop is a concept borrowed from the United States, coffee shops have replaced the erstwhile dining rooms of old hotels therefore it is an all purpose restaurant. The coffee shop is distinguished with the following features and styles:

·         Food is pre-plated from the kitchen. The portion sizes are fixed but adequate in quantity to the average guest.

·         The restaurant ensures quick service because the food items are offered can be made in a quickest method.

·         The restaurant has a casual atmosphere. This means that the guest can come in casual wear. The tables will have place mats.

·         Coffee shops menu have quite light and simple and include popular dishes like fish and chips, fried chicken, club sandwiches, burgers etc.

·         The coffee shops are operated 24 hours and are the only restaurant in a hotel that serves food at any time of the day and night when other restaurants in the hotel are closed.

·         Coffee shops are located mostly off the lobby or beside the swimming pool.

·         The big hotels today are providing elaborate multi-cuisine buffets in the coffee shops and prefer to call the outlet ‘all day dining restaurant’ or a ‘24 hour restaurant’.

Cafeteria

Cafeteria are restaurants meant for volume patrons round in school and college food programmes, residential halls, industrial canteens, defense messes, hospitals, etc. they produce in quantity and serve the food as self service counters. The staff passes along a long counter to take the food in compartment trays. Common long tables and light chairs are provided to staff to sitting and eating. Essential feature of cafeteria are:

·         Bain Marie to keep food warm

·         Fixed menu

·         Self service

·         Common tables & chairs

Fast Food (Quick Service Restaurants)

The name itself explains the theme of this type of restaurant and distinctly an American concept. These restaurants provide ready to eat food in minutes after it is ordered. Some are provided instantly while others are finished through quick cooking. This is possible when the food is pre heated and kept warm burger, patties on a griddle. Big names in these restaurant categories are Mc Donalds, Burger King, KFC etc. the main features of fast food restaurant are:

·         A cashier counter where food orders are placed paid for and received for consumption either on a tray or in a packed form to take away.

·         The restaurant is casual.

·         The menu items are displayed through colourful transparencies behind the cashier.

·         The service is done through trays.

·         Food is normally dry finger food.

·         It does not usually require the traditional cutlery and flatware.

·         Each food &beverages are individually priced.

·         Fast food is processed in an industrial pattern in volume.

·         The fast food operation is driven by standardized food, preparation methods, flavours, portion sizes and procedures.

Another version of fast food service is the ‘drive through’ which allow customers to order and be instantly provided food in their cars through a window.

Grill Room

This is a restaurant that specializes itself in grills and roasts of different meats, fish and poultry. The features of this type of restaurant are:

·         A glass partition that separates the kitchen from the seating area so that guests can see the grill preparation of their choice.

·         Casual in atmosphere, some of them may have pool tables and indoor sports.

·         Grill room can be sophisticated casual too with fiber crockery and linen.

Banquets
A banquet is a food & beverage service at a specific time and place, to a given number of guests, to an agreed menu and price. Banquets are special functions for social, professional and state occasions.

Banqueting is a business of selling space to hold functions. Banquet requires large halls with attached kitchens to provide quantity foods and a banquet brigade who are skilled in the art of handling large bodies of people. Banquet halls are found in medium to large hotels, where banquet business is a part of an overall revenue strategy. Banquet halls can be partitioned into smaller function rooms as a smart practice to optimize space, enabling multiple functions at the same time. The partitions are sound proofed to give exclusively to each function. 

Bar

A bar is a facility that dispenses alcoholic & non-alcoholic beverages, cocktails and mocktails. There are two types of bars public bars and service bars. The public bars are independent facilities exclusively dedicated to the service of alcoholic beverages. These bars are also called pubs, taverns, discotheque bars, and cocktail lounges. The service bars are the one that dispenses drinks to servers who serve the beverages to guests. Service bar are found in restaurants, banquets, room service. The bar dispenses wines, liquor, spirits, juices, aerated waters, cigars and cigarettes. Restaurant food service professional will coordinate with the bar for beverage orders.

Vending Machines

Vending machine may be defined as selling by automation. It is a form of automatic retailing using one of the following methods of payment:

·         Coin

·         Banknote,

·         Money card

·         Token.

Vending can be used to provide either services and facilities or consumables. For example: Hot and cold beverages, Meals, Confectionery, Tobacco, Alcoholic drinks.

Advantages of foodservice vending

The machines themselves may be used in conjunction with the conventional kitchen production. At the same time they relieve some of the pressure of work on the counter hands and cashier by taking some of the customers away from the counter and to the machines. This is especially true where only hot or cold beverages are required together with a limited range of snacks for a certain percentage of those being catered for. Other advantages are:

·         24-hour service: Automatic vending machines can provide a 24 hours service.

·         Low cost: Automatic vending machines are cheaper to operate than conventional methods of service.

·         Food cost control: This is a great advantage because automatic vending allows strict portion control.

·         Economy of labor: Results in a reduction in the food service wages bill.

·         Natural tea break: With the advent of these machines the fixed tea breaks has given a way to the natural tea break, which can increase staff productivity.

·         Fresh beverages: Wile a main meal may be served, if beverage is available by machine then they are fresh and taken as and when required.

·         Variety: These machine offer a wide variety of hot and cold snacks and beverages, all contained within a space considerably smaller than would be necessary for conventional forms of production service.

·         Reduced wastage: As long as the customer demand has been correctly gauged, wastage can be reduced to minimum.

·         Ease of maintenance: A member of the permanent staff should be trained to replenish and clean the wending machines daily.

Discotheque

It is a restaurant which is principally meant for dancing to the recorded music. Its distinguishin g features are:

·         The music is driven by a qualified and experienced disc jockey (DJ) who creates or responds to the moods of the guest.

·         Special lighting to give psychedelic effects.

·         A dance floor.

·         A bar which is the main feature.

·         Light meals and finger snacks.

·         Entry charge to ensure that the right crowd enters. Other may permit only couples to ensure the right balance of men and women.

·         The term discotheque has been replaced with a generalized term ‘Night Club’ today.

II ANCILLIARY DEPARTMENTS
A. Pantry
B. Food pick-up area
C. Store
D. Linen room

Kitchen stewarding

The department is primarily concerned with the storage, maintenance, cleanliness and issue of cutlery, crockery, hollowware, chinaware and glassware to the restaurant and kitchens. It is responsible for the cleanliness of kitchens and the washing of pots and pans. It procures, installs and service gas connections and coal supply for cooking. The department would ideally have a large store for kitchen and service equipment; dishwashers and pot washing section. Many hotels may give the responsibility of the staff cafeteria to the kitchen stewarding. Kitchen stewarding is also responsible for the pest control activity of a kitchen. Food service staff coordinates with this department to deposit soiled dishes for washing at dishwashers and to receive fresh supplies of crockery, cutlery, flatware, and glassware and service ware. The kitchen stewarding will remain an integral part of food service operations.

The organization chart of kitchen stewarding:

Executive Kitchen Steward

He is responsible for planning, organizing, directing and controlling the stewarding activity. He would control the kitchen stewarding stores and ensure that the kitchens and restaurants smoothly get their needs. He conducts periodic inventories to monitor the movement of all kitchen and service ware. He coordinates with the gas and coal supplier to keep the kitchen operational.

Kitchen steward

This is a supervisory level responsible for a shift. Stewarding activity is a 24 hour activity in a busy hotel. He prepares duty rota of the staff and ensures the needs of the kitchen are fulfilled. His main responsibility is to ensure that the kitchen is kept in clean and hygiene condition.

Utility workers

These are the cleaning brigades, who clean the kitchen and equipment and do other heavy work. Kitchen porter is the American title given by small independent hotels to utility workers who do multi-tasking.

Dishwashers

They operate the dishwashing machine that cleans all service ware.

Pot washers (plongeurs)

The clean large pots and cooking utensils of the kitchen, using jet water sprays.

ANCILLIARY DEPARTMENTS
In any establishment a guest’s first impression on entering the service area is of great importance. A guest can be won or lost on these impressions alone. There are many service areas behind the scene or what may be termed as back of the house which is required to be efficiently run, well organized, supervised and well stocked with appropriate equipments depending on the style of operation.

These service areas are usually between kitchen and the food service area. They are important areas in the make-up of the catering establishments acting as a link between kitchen and restaurants. These are also the meeting point for staffs of various sections as they carry out their duties and therefore there must be close liaison between the various members of staff and their respective departments.

In general, especially in large operations, five main back-of-the-house service areas can be identified:

1. Still room

2. Kitchen stewarding

3. Hot plate/ food pick up area

4. Linen room

5. Store

STILL ROOM/ PANTRY

The main function of the still room is to provide items of F&B required for the service of a meal and not created by any other major department like kitchen, patisserie, larder etc. Depending on the policy of the management and the volume of business at times it is supervised by a supervisor who may be a senior member of the f&b brigade.

When ordering goods from the main dry store, all requirements should be written on a requisition sheet in duplicate. The top copy goes to the store to be retained by the store-keeper after issuing the goods and the duplicate remains in the requisition book as a mean of checking the receipt of goods from the store by a member of the still room. The store keeper should not issue goods unless the still room supervisor or another person in authority has signed the requisition.

Equipments:

Following are the equipments required for proper storage, preparation and presentation of the food by the still room-

a. Refrigerator- storing butter, milk, fruit juice, cream and so on

b. Beverage vending machine- soft drink, tea, coffee etc.

c. Large double sink

d. Salamander or toaster

e. Bread slicing machine

f. Working table and cutting board

g. Ice maker

h. Storage cupboard for all dry goods held in stock and for such miscellaneous items as doilies, paper napkin, straw etc.

i. Gas range or induction plate

As a basic guide the following food items would normally be dispensed from the still room-

1. All non-alcoholic beverages including tea, coffee, soft drinks, chocolate drinks etc.

2. Preserves like jam, jelly, marmalade, honey, butter etc.

3. Various bread rolls like brioche, croissants

4. Various breakfast cereals like cornflakes, wheat flakes etc.

5. Pastries, gateaux, sandwich, boiled eggs are also dispensed

A proper control is very important for the items which are dispensed from the still room. Therefore all items should be issued either against a requisition from the service area or against a waiter’s check.

KITCHEN STEWARDING

The kitchen stewarding is basically divided into two areas:

a) Wash up area-

It is an important service area and should be ideally situated so that the brigade can work speedily and efficiently while passing from the food service area to the kitchen. The waiter should stack the trays of dirties correctly at the side board with all the same sized plates together and all the tableware stacked on one of the plates with the blades of the knives running under the arch of the forks. All glassware should be stacked on separate trays and taken to a separate wash up area. Wash up section should be the first place when the waiter enters the back area.

Hygiene is of utmost importance at the wash up area, as all sorts of germs can originate from here and can contaminate the food. This section is normally in the charge of the stewarding supervisor who may in turn have number of wash up boys as per need.

Dishwashing Methods:

There are two main methods used for dishwashing for foodservice operations-

Manual (tank) method-

The dirty crockery is placed in a tank of hot water containing a soap detergent solution.

After washing, these are placed in wire racks and dipped into a second sterilizing tank containing clean hot water detergent at a temperature of approximately 75˚C (179˚F). The racks are left for two minutes and then lifted out and the crockery left to drain. If sterilized in water at this temperature the crockery will dry by itself without the use of drying up cloths. This is more hygienic. After drying the crockery is stacked into piles of the correct size and placed on shelves until required for further use.

Dishwashing machine-

Used in larger establishments. Debris should be removed from the crockery before it is placed into the wire racks. The racks are then passed through the machine, the crockery being washed, rinsed and sterilized. Having passed through the machine the crockery is left to drain for two or three minutes and is then stacked and placed on shelves until required for further use.

b) Silver room/ plate room-

In larger establishments the silver room or the plate room, as it is sometimes known, is a separate service area controlled by the kitchen stewarding supervisor. They take care of all the silverwares and the china wares stored in the silver room and are also responsible for silver polishing. The silver room should hold the complete stock of silverware required by the different department to meet the day to day requirements along with a surplus stock in case of emergency.

While stacking, large silver ware, like salver, flat platter etc. should be stored on shelves. When stacking heavier items should go on the shelves lower down and smaller and lighter items on the shelves higher up to prevent accidents. Flatware and cutlery should be kept in drawers lined with baize cloth to prevent them from moving about in the drawer and getting scratched or marked.

FOOD PICK UP AREA

This may be regarded as the meeting point between the food service staff and food preparation staff. It is very essential to ensure that there is an active cooperation and good relation between the staffs of these two areas. The aboyeur or the barker is in charge and controls the food pick up area during the service period. The aboyeur also controls the off board which tells the waiter immediately if any dish is off. It should be sited in a prominent position for all to see. The aboyeur receives the KOT from the waiter and places the order on the KOT to the respective kitchen area. He also helps the waiter to pick up the food.

Many a times all the crockery and hollowware are placed below the hot plate for easy meal service. The hot plate is operated electrically.

LINEN ROOM

It keeps a stock of various linen used in the restaurant/outlet. Example – table cloth, serviettes, guest napkin, slip cloth, baize etc.

Fresh linen is picked up by the restaurant staff in exchange of the soiled linen. Generally it is done once a day. But it might be more than once in case of coffee shop. A linen register is maintained on a daily basis for this purpose.

STORE

Store room is the area from where the F&B service staff requisite and receives items such as grocery and stationary that are required for smooth running of the day to day operation of the outlet.