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PART I

The
" Waiter
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..Who is a Waiter?
Typical Job Description
of a Waiter
TRAINING AID
Every hotel, irre$pective of size or volume of business, has two major revenue producing areas-rooms
and restaurants (and bars). The latter offer food and beverages for sale. In common hotel terminology the
services offered in restaurants and bars are referred to as "food and beverage service". This manual deals
with the training of the food and beverage service pers~nnel. The most important person around whom
food and beverage service pivots, is the waiter.

A waiter is one who serves food and beverage in a restaurant or bar. He is IUSO popularly Iaiown as a
Steward or Commis-de-Rang. A good waiter should possess qualities like social confidence, good
etiquette and manners, effective communication, a pleasing personality, salesmanship, a willingness to
serve, and above all, a thorough knowledge of his job.
I. Attend briefing before a restaurant service
2. Mis-en-scene
3. Mis-en-place
4. Requisition restaurant items for service, e.g. linen, glassware,
cutlery. flowers, etc.
S. Clean silverware and glassware
6. Prepare each table for service
7. Receive and seat guests.
8. Take beverage orders and serve
9. Take food orders and serve
10. Serve wine and champagne
II. Present a cheque (or bill) and receive payment
12. Ensure cost control
13. Salesmanship
14. Ensure hygiene and sanitation
IS. Safety
This manual attempts to teach a waiter how to do his job well. For this he requires correct knowledge,
skills and attitudes. The subse
quent lessons elucidate, the kn_owledge, skill and attitudes that a
waiter should possess to execute his job.
Submit the job description of a waiter of your establishment.
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3

The Waiter
Knowledge
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LESSON
Coffee Shop
Continental Restaurant
Specialty RestaDraat
Grill Room (Rotisserie)
DiniDg Room

1
The Restaurant
A restaurant is a commercial establishment committed to the sale of food and beverage. A restaurant may
be a licensed part of a hotel operation, whereby the sales of the restaurant contribute to the sales
performance of the hotel as a whole. Restaurants may also be independent business entities under
individual ownership and management. BasicaUy, restaurants provide tables and chairs for people to sit
and eat food prepared by an attached kitchen. They are equipped with crockery, cutlery and linen which
may vary in quality according to the standard of the restaurant, which is determined by- its decor,
independent bar, entertainment facilities and above all, the quality of service.
There are different types of restaurants.
A concept borrowed from the United States, distinguished by its quick service. Food is pre-plated and the
atmosphere informal. Table cover layouts are less elaborate and have basic essentials only.

The atmosphere is more sophisticated and caters for people who can eat at leisure. The accent is on good continental
food and elaborate service.
The entire atmosphere and decor are geared to a particular type of food or theme. Thus restaurants which
offer Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Polynesian cuisine would be termed "specialty restaurants". The
senice is based more or less on the style of the country from which the particular cuisine originates.
Various meat cuts are grilled or roasted here. Normally, a grin room has a glass partition between the
restaurant and the kitchen, so that the guest can choose his meat cut and see the actual preparation.
Found in smaller hotels, motels or inns who find it uneconomical to have more than one eating place. The
dining room is basically meant for the residents of the hotel but may be open to non-residents also.
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Snack Bar/Cafe/Milk Bar
Discotheque
Night Club
TRAINING METHODOLOGY
TRAINING AIDS
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Here the restaurant is informal and the service quick. The snack bar may have a counter for self service and
specialises in snacks, soda fountain specialities, ice-creams, etc. The decor is relatively inexpensive.
A restaurant which is principally meant for dancing to recorded music. A live band may also perform. An essential
part of a discothe. que is a bar while the food offered consists mainly of snacks.
It is principally open at night for dinner, dance and cabarets. A dis. pensing bar is always provided. Decor is lavish
while service is elaborate. A live band is important to the set-up.
Most establishments insist on formal wear so as to enhance the atmosphere.
The above is broad information on the types of restaurants. What the waiter needs to know is the type
of restaurant he will work in and the facilities and services that it provides.
Thus, explain the following to your waiter:
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1. The type of restaurant that he will work in.

2. Floor plan of the restaurant (Fig. J gives a typical floor plan).
3. Capacity of the restaurant in terms of the number of seats and
tables.
4. Facilities offered in the restaurant such as entertainment, credit,
type of menu such as a la carte, table d'hote, buffet, liquor
service, etc.
S. Type of clientele patronising the restaurant: business, tourists,
students and socialites.
6. The organisational hierarchy of the restaurant (see Fig. 2).
Follow up with an induction tour of the restaurant.
1. Flip chart of floor plan ot- your restaurant (Fig. 1). 2. Flip chart ('f organisational hierarchy (Fig. 2).

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LESSON
10

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Bas i c Eti q uette for Restaurant Staff
The hotel and restaurant business is an admixture of showmanship, dipiomacy and" sociability. AU front
line personnel are required to have an ability to communicate effectively coupled with certain manners
and the etiquette associated with genteelness. The etiquette that a waiter exhibits in a restaurant should
comprise the following:
1. Attend to guests as soon as they enter the restaurant.
2. Assist guests to remove warm, heavy coats in winter and help
put them on when they leave.
3. Wish guests the time of the day and welcome them to the
restaurant.
4. Preferably address them by their name which requires remem
bering .them.
5. Be polite to guests. .
6. Help to seat ladies.
7. Provide extra cushions or special chairs for children.
8. When speaking to a guest, do not interrupt him if he is speaking
to another guest.
9. Do not overhear conversation. 10. Avoid mannerisms such as touching hair or nose picking, etc. 11.
Stand erect at all times. A gentle bow at the time of service is
permissible.
12. Remember a guest's special dish and remind him that you know
it,. Ascertain whether he would like to older it again.
13. Be attentive to guest calls.
14. Talk softly.
15. Strike a match to enable a guest to light his cigarette.
16. Avoid arguing with service staff and guests in the restaurant. 17. Carry pencils in the pockets and not
 behind ears or clipped in
front of the jacket.
18. Desist from chewing gum or beetle nut.
19. Present tbe bill/check to the host discreetly in order to avoid
embarrassing him.
20. Avoid soliciting for tips.
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TRAINING METHODO\.OGY
TRAINING AID
21. Remove tips after the guest has left.
22. Enter and leave the restaurant through the service door only.
The trainer should observe etiquette during actual service- and point out any lapses at the end of the
service.
Rules and regulations booklet of the hotel/restaurant.
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LESSON
Kitchen
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3
Knowledge of other Departments
A restaurant depends largely on certain departments for effective functioning. Smooth co-ordination is
important. A waiter must be fully aware of the role of each co-ordinating department. Though most
departlI\ents mentioned below are applicable to a hotel, indi. vidual restaurants may also find some useful
tips.
The kitchen is the place where food is prepared. While larger kitchens may have distinctly different sections to deal
with various aspects of food preparation, smaller kitchens may have different functions done by a single person. The
main sections in a large kitchen are:
Butcher Shop: Here raw meats are cut from wholesale cuts and carcasses into smaller portions of given weight so
that they are ready to be cooked.
Garde Manger: The section where cold dishes such as hors
d'oeuvres, cold meat platters, salads, galantines, p~tes are made.
Pantr}'~ Source for sandwiches, fruit platters, juices and shakes.
Bakery and Confectionery: The section which prepares breads, bread-roUs, croissants, brioches, cakes, pastries,
muffins, cookies, ice-creams.
Hot Range: The main cooking range where all hot dishes are
prepared.
Grill: For all grilled items like steaks, fish, chops, etc.
Vegetable Preparation: Here all raw vegetables are cut into smaller
presentable portions.
StilI Room: Tea and coffee are brewed here. A still is a chamber in which water is continuously boiling. For tea
service a waiter may fill the teapot with tea leaves according to portions required and fill the pot with boiling water
from the still. For a quick turnover of tea, the still may brew tea continuously, at low temperatures. The same
applies to coffee service where ground coffee is brewed and instant coffee is placed in coffee pots to which water is
added.
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Kitchen Stewarding
or Wash-up Area
Housekeeping
 Cashier (from the Accounts Department)
Engineering
Front Office
Stores
TRAINING METHODOLOGY
Store Requisition
This department primarily controls the storage and issue of cutlery, crockery, holloware, chinaware and glassware
to the restaurants and kitchens. The waiter would have to get his supplies of the above items from this department.
The department is also responsible for washing
- soiled serviceware and subsequently furnishing clean items. The sanitation and hygiene of the kitchen usually
comes under the purview of the kitchen stewarding department.
Bar
The bar dispenses wines, liquor, spirits, juices, aerated waters, cigars and cigarettes.
The housekeeping department is responsible for the cleanliness, maintenance and the aesthetic standards of a hotel.
A waiter should know that the housekeeping department is the source for staff uniforms, restaurant linen and
flowers.
The cashier receives all cash and credit payments made for food and beverage sales in a restaurant or bar.
This department is responsible for the supply of air-conditioning or heating, lighting, mechanical and electrical
functioning of any service equipment in the restaurant.
This is the central point where all checks or bills of hotel residents are collected and then recorded in their overall
bill. The front office keeps a record of all guests residing in the hotel. If a resident wishes to sign his bill, the waiter
may contact this department for confirmation of the guest's name and room number.
The source froq:1 which a waiter can get supplies of proprietry sauces, order-pads, pencils, bottIe-openers or any
other-supplies. Large hotels would have separate General stores, Food stores, Beverage stores and Perishable stores.
Explain the role of these departments in your establishment. In addition take' the waiter on an induction tour. It is
important that the procedure of requisitioning items from Kitchen Stewarding, Housekeeping and Stores are
explained thoroughly. A popular system adopted in most hotels is that the requisitioning department originates
a .store requisition which records the following information: unit, quantity, description of item, unit price and total
price.
Usually three copies are made:
1 st Copy-stores-controls!accounts
2nd Copy-retained by stores for record
3rd Copy-retained by originating requisitioning department.
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LESSON
A la carte
Table d'hote

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The
Menu
A menu represents the range of food and beverage items offered in a restaurant. When the menu is represented on a
card, it is referred to as the Menu Card. Great pains are taken in compiling the menu card which should not only be
attractive but informative and gastronomically sound as this reflects the quality of the restaurant. In a restaurant
there are two different types of menus which are differentiated by the manner in which they are priced:
Menu in which each food item is separately priced in order to give the guest a choice to suit his taste and budget.
The choice offered in various courses are many.
Menu in which the entire meal is priced and charged, irrespective of whether the guest has the complete meal or
not. Sometimes there are choices of individual courses within a completely priced meal. A restaurant ma~' offer
two t~ble d'ho:e menus where a guest has a
choice of a meal.i I

The classical French menu consists of eleven courses. The number

of courses are restricted in modern times to an appetiser, soup, main . dish and sweet dish. Coffee may be served
after it. A course is a food item eaten at a particular time and sequence during a complete meal.
French
Hors d'oeuvres
English Appetisers
Examples
Oysters, smoked salmon, caviar, shrimp cocktail
Creme of tomato soup, consommes, vishychoisse
Fish a l'anglaise, Sole de Bonne Femme
Potage
Soup
Poisson
Fish
Entree Releve
First meat dish Main meat disll
Noisette d' Agneau, Jambon
Pepper steak, Chateaubriand