Improving Food & Beverage Service at a Five Star Grand Hotel

by Alan Lake, professional chef & restaurant consultant-

When I was asked by an old friend to join a task force to assist in the re-opening of a well-known hotel in Ireland I jumped at the chance. I joined a team of 30 specialists from around the world and was faced with the task of making improvements to banquets, two historic pubs, lounge and restaurant.

This hotel has been around since early 1800’s and is a Five Star Grand Hotel. When I arrived it had just undergone a remodel to the tune of a third of a billion US dollars complete with real gold leaf in the lobby, massive cameos worth a million dollars each and a fresh flower budget that would put any other hotel out of business in a month.

My first day in I looked at the morning buffet and made the following changes out of the gate:

  • Dry smoked salmon would require misting, smaller batches replenished more frequently or the salmon could be rolled to reduce the exposed surfaces.
  • The raw bar did not meet HACCP regulations and had to be switched up to metal 1/9 pans snuggled into ice right up to the level of their contents.
  • Cooks or food runners had to start calling orders back to confirm their orders had been heard and understood by the expediter. (Repeating the order helps seal the request into the cooks’ minds.)

I had my work cut out for me.

I took over as expediter shouting out orders in the kitchen to time and execute things more smoothly. My persistence and distinctly American approach lead to a request for quiet from customers so I arranged to have two way radios placed to allow us to communicate quietly and effectively. It took three weeks of persistent nagging to get the team to finally start calling orders back.

The Micros for ticket printing was extremely confusing, as one kitchen services all of the food outlets in the hotel, including of course, room service. This meant the ticket printer, or “docket printer” as they’re called in Ireland, could be spewing out any number of orders with a similar food item but with different servings (and names) from outlet to outlet.

I knew the only way to avoid constant confusion was to streamline the dockets and make the naming process easier. Instead of four different names for crab cakes it was easier to use a size identifier so the cook knew exactly what to prepare instead of remembering the size of the cake and the amount that goes on the plate. I spoke with each outlet to discuss issues they were having with Micros and ended up with a list of 70 problems to tackle. This allowed us to downsize, streamline and improve the dockets.

I looked at the Irish style of slow motion service compared to the chop, chop approach here in the States. I wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that bills in Dublin are all inclusive, meaning the tip is automatic. Hence where is the motivation? Although there were some strong seasoned staff the majority were novices who made the kitchen work harder. Too many mistakes made things run far from smoothly with many important steps being forgotten on a regular basis including hustling for things without urgency and re-plating items that should have gone out long ago. Heat lamps helped avoid reheating and re-plating.

I considered the food uninspired but well suited for the demographics. I wrote a food test on the menu and coordinated further training in order to be able to deal with the wait staff and assist them in being prepared to discuss food and wine knowledgeably and effectively. This included a review of the different dishes available, their variances in flavour, how many things came per order and of course how things were prepared. This helped cut down on orders being delayed when servers came back to the kitchen asking about the food.

I prepared a menu bible complete with recipes, photographs for presentation and protective plastic sleeves to maintain consistency of food quality.  This was distributed amongst all staff during our training sessions and a hard bound copy was placed within the kitchen for reference.  We also discussed appropriate wine parings for each dish which led to a 20% increase in wine sales almost immediately.

As with any new (or re-opened) restaurant waste had to be addressed. A waste sheet was posted that required the date, item, quantity and most importantly the reason for something being trashed. This helped them identify reoccurring waste problems and avoid inflated food costs.

Finally some basics were addressed from the restaurant 101 best practices handbook:

  • Course lines were set up
  • Seat positions were utilized
  • Production schedules were made
  • Prep lists were posted
  • Hotel maintenance began cleaning the dining areas between services

My presence allowed Executive Chef and old friend to concentrate his efforts on delivering quality product while I put out the fires. The end result was improvements to presentation, product, wait times and overall guest experience.

For additional information please contact me at alan@alanlake.com

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