Profitable Food and Beverage Management †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Profitable Food and Beverage Management. Answer: Introduction: In the restaurant community, the phrases Front of House and Back of House are usually utilized to differentiate between dissimilar areas within a restaurant. Front of house (FOH) operations consist of operations that are carried out in the area in which the guests or customers sit. FOH is the area that patrons would be exposed to as they stay at the restaurant (Theng 2012, p. 136). On the other hand, back of house (BOH) operations are all the operations that are carried out in the behind-the-scene areas not seen by clients (Lewis 2008, p. 13). This investigative report highlights the findings of the interview with Food and Beverage Manager of Caf Piatto restaurant which is situated in Adelaide, Australia along 264 Rundle Street. It is an Italian restaurant that offers caf as well as Italian cuisine. FOH areas at Caf Piatto include waiting area, restrooms, entry, outdoor seating, dining room, and bar. BOH areas include the office, employee area, and kitchen. The interview contained a mix of both closed-ended and open-ended questions. The person interviewed is the restaurants Food and Beverage Manager called Paolo Paolini. He takes a number of measures to maintain cost control there. In particular, the findings revealed that to maintain cost control of Front of House Operations, this manager avoids menu price increases and asks chefs to interact with servers to tell them the menu items that have to be pushed. In addition, he also advises his chefs to control portion sizes and not to put on the plate more food than required or than ordered by the patron. This helps to meet food cost targets. To maintain cost control of the Back of House Operations, the Food and Beverage Manager orders wisely and correctly. This entails knowing what is needed and how much. He also orders food and beverages in bulk for particular items and asks for those shipments to be sent to his restaurant in installments; not all of them sent at once. This way, he is able to get extras such as extra specialty pastas, sea salt, San Marzano tomatoes, and virgin olive oil. This manager also purchases the restaurants foods and beverages directly from the source, for instance straight from the fish auction or from the farm, and thus avoids middlemen. When he buys from the source, he also asks for discount. Furthermore, the Food and Beverage Manager maintains cost control by reducing waste and has trained back office staffs on his rules as regards not wasting food. Furthermore, the findings indicated that he uses a few financial control methods in the restaurants daily business operation. He specifically use s financial accounting software and point-of-sale (POS) registers, and software which integrate these two; as well as financial statement review. Evaluation of the Findings and its Effectiveness in Managing Foodservice Operations The restaurants Food and Beverage Manager has adopted highly effective methods of maintaining cost control for both Back of House and Front of House Operations. Controlling portion sizes for the restaurants patrons is a notable way of maintaining Front of House cost control (Luo Stark 2015, p. 26). Training staffs to know that every portion of salmon fillet that goes on the plate is 4 ounces and not any more or that 2 ounces, not 2 or 3, of duck prosciutto is put on the plate, makes a significant difference to meet a food cost target (McDougall Rose 2010). Equally important, avoiding increasing the prices of menu food and beverage items ensures that patrons do not feel uncomfortable coming to the restaurant. All in all, keeping prices low but charging enough to make sufficient profits helps to ensure that the food items go quickly and decreases overall food costs (Durocher 2013, p. 102). Moreover, selling food and beverage products that sell fast to the guests helps to maintain cos t control and decrease inventory (Gregorash 2016, p. 336). Since the Food and Beverage Manager of Caf Piatto adopted these measures to maintain cost control, it means that he is effectively managing foodservice operations of Front of House Operations. Purchasing directly from the source and buying non-perishable food products in bulk are common methods of controlling costs. Porter (2014, p. 55) mentioned that ordering food products in bulk is very cost-effective. Even so, this could bring about spoiling of food which in turn cancels out any money that would have been saved through purchasing the food in bulk. When the shipments are sent to the restaurant in a number of installments, it ensures that the restaurant serves foods and drinks that are always fresh (Porter 2014, p. 55). This also decreases the quantity of food that is wasted, and consequently saves the restaurant money (Duncan 2010, p. 172). When buying food and drinks such milk, Theng (2012, p. 134) pointed out that there is always the alternative of cutting out the middlemen and going straight to the source such as farmers markets and local farms. Usually, middlemen buy from these local sources at a lower price and then resell them to restaurants at a much higher price for a profit. By bypassing middlemen, restaurants can save a significant amount of money (Theng 2012, p. 135). Therefore, the fact that the restaurant at Caf Piatto buys directly from the source and buys in bulk implies that he is actually saving the restaurant a lot of money every month. This is a great way of maintaining cost control. Reducing wastage of food and beverage is also an important method of maintaining cost control. This is particularly critical for restaurants that specialize in highly perishable and high-cost items (Finch 2010, p. 23). It is vital for cooks to clearly understand the value of using each piece of a food product. In addition, they have to be creative with the scraps. In the long-term, reducing waste could lead to huge amount of cost savings (Gregorash 2016, p. 335). Since the manager of Caf Piatto strives to decrease waste as a method of maintaining cost control, it denotes that he is effective in managing foodservice operations. As a financial control method, financial statement review basically entails sufficient review of both the balance sheet and the income statement. Restaurant managers need to analyze, review and reconcile every account to the general ledger monthly and annually (El Biri 2015). Financial controls in restaurants also usually employ technology, for instance financial accounting software and POS registers, and specific software which integrate the two. It is of note that integrated systems could be programmed to run various financial reports, signal the restaurant manager whenever cash drawers necessitate a drop, and perform real-time inventory management (Lohrey 2016). A Point-of-Sale system provides a more foolproof credit card and cash tracking system that makes it harder for staff members to commit acts like voiding an already-recorded transaction or lifting money from the cash registers (Lohrey 2016). The fact that the Food and Beverage Manager at Caf Piatto uses these financial cont rol methods implies that he has adopted effective ways in managing foodservice operations. Reference List Duncan, R 2010, 'Fish farms, restaurants, hotels and libraries', Aplis, 23, 4, pp. 170-178, Professional Development Collection, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Durocher, JF 2013, 'Profitable Food and Beverage Management (Book)', Cornell Hotel Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 20, 2, p. 102, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. El Biri, G 2015, Internal controls for restaurants. Viewed 30 September, https://www.bdo.com/blogs/restaurants/september-2015/internal-controls-for-restaurants Finch, B 2010, Effective Financial Management, London: Kogan Page, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Gregorash, B 2016, 'Restaurant revenue management: apply reservation management?', Information Technology Tourism, 16, 4, pp. 331-346, Hospitality Tourism Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Lohrey, J 2016, Internal control in restaurants. Viewed 30 September https://smallbusiness.chron.com/internal-control-restaurants-74765.html Lewis, M 2008, 'A bigger profile for front of house', Caterer Hotelkeeper, 12 June, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Luo, T, Stark, P 2015, 'Nine out of 10 restaurants fail? Check, please', Significance, 12, 2, pp. 25-29, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. McDougall, A Rose, T 2010, Tips and Tools for Controlling your Food Cost. Viewed 30 September 2017, https://www.starchefs.com/cook/business-tips/controlling-restaurant-food-cost Porter, J 2014, 'Cost control', Caterer Hotelkeeper, 203, 4814, pp. 54-56, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Romm, D 2010, 'Food and Beverage Management in Hotels (Book)', Cornell Hotel Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 29, 2, p. 109, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017. Theng, LP 2012, 'Food and beverage management for the hospitality, tourism and event industries', Anatolia: An International Journal Of Tourism Hospitality Research, 23, 1, pp. 135-136, Hospitality Tourism Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 October 2017.