The hotel functional organizational design The Food and Beverage Department

The primary function of the food and beverage department is, of course, to provide food and drink to a hotel's guests. In earlier times, when an inn had only one dining room, this was a much simpler task. Today, however, providing food and drink is much more complicated. The 500-room hotel in this discussion might well have a coffee shop, a gourmet restaurant, a poolside snack bar, room service, two banquet halls, and ten separate function rooms where food and beverage may be served. It might also have a piano bar and lounge, a nightclub, and a lobby bar. This adds up to nineteen separate food and beverage outlets, excluding room service! On a busy day (or night) it's quite likely that each of these outlets will have functions booked. In some cases, more than one food and beverage function will take place in an outlet during a twenty-four-hour period. There is, therefore, great diversity in the kinds of activities performed by a food and beverage department. Additionally, there is significant variety in the skills required within the department. So within the food and beverage department there are a number of functional subunits where tasks are further specialized.

To begin with there is the food production, or kitchen department. In a 500-room hotel this unit is headed by the executive chef, a person of great statue and authority in any first-class hotel. Under the executive chef are a variety of culinary specialists responsible for different aspects of food preparation. The larger and more complicated a hotel, the more likely its kitchen organization reflects this. The actual service of food in a hotel's restaurants is usually the responsibility of a separate department, which in a large hotel, is headed by an assistant food and beverage director. The food service department is responsible for customer service in the hotel's restaurants and food outlets. This unit contains the individual restaurant and outlet managers, maitre d's, waiters, waitresses, and bus help. Because of the special problems associated with room service, many hotels of this size have a separate subunit responsible only for room service. The high value and profit margins associated with alcoholic beverages causes hotels to form a separate department with responsibility over the bars, lounges service bars, and other outlets where alcoholic beverages are sold. Most full-service hotels do considerable convention and catering business. The typical convention will use small function rooms for separate meetings, larger rooms for general sessions and even larger facilities for banquets. Individually catered events include local parties, wedding receptions, business meetings, and other functions held by local groups. To provide for the unique needs of these particular kinds of customers, hotels often organize separate catering and convention departments that specialize in only this kind of business. Finally, the job of cleaning the spaces of the food and beverage department, dish and ware washing, and general food and beverage expediting is often delegated to a separate subunit known as the stewarding department.

This brief description brings to light two important organizational properties of a food and beverage department: 1. the degree and variety of work specialization that exists in its different subunits, and 2. the degree of sub-unit interdependence. Here are some examples of the variety of specialized skills found in this department. The custodial skills required in the stewarding department are elementary when compared to the years of training required by a skilled chef. Guest contact skills are essential for a restaurant service staff; organization and efficiency is vital for a convention and catering department; control and accountability are important attributes for a beverage manager. Although there is a high degree of work specialization in each of these subunits, it is only through their continuous cooperation and coordination that a hotel's food service function can be effectively carried out. For a guest to dine in a hotel's restaurant requires the joint efforts of its kitchen, food service, beverage, and stewarding departments. A convention banquet cannot be held without the efforts of the convention and catering department along with food production, beverage, and stewarding. Even more than in the rooms department, intricate forms of sequential and reciprocal interdependence exists between the various subunits of the food and beverage department, thus placing an enormous coordinating burden on managers and employees alike.

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions:

1. What might the 500-room hotel have to provide food and drink today?

2. Is there dead-level in the kinds of activities performed by a food and beverage department?

3. What causes hotels to form a separate department where alcoholic beverages are sold?

4. Who heads the kitchen department in a 500-room hotel?

5. What is the responsibility of the food service department?

6. What is the responsibility of catering and convention departments?

7. What kind of job is the stewarding department performing?

8. What is essential for a restaurant service staff?

9. Give your own example?

10. Only with coordination between units a hotel's food service function can be effectively carried out, cannot it?

Exercise 4. English Grammar.

Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Continuous gap-fill exercise

1. She (… … …) (study) English for 5 years.

2. Peter (… … …) (come) here on holiday every year since 1989.

3. She (… … …) (teach) our group for two years.

4. How long (… … …) (you wait) here?

5. It (… … …) (rain) for over 2 hours.

6. I (… … …) (write) this report for 5 days.

7. Mr Brown (… … …) (work) in this office for 2 years.

8. My dog (… … …) (not eat) properly. I must take him to the vets.

9. Jane (… … …) (lie) in the sun for too long.

10. I (… … …) (try) to stop smoking since 1985

UNIT 5

Exercise 1. Match English words and expressions with their Russian

equivalents:

Exercise 2. Read and translate the text: