Tag Archive for 'restaurant business'

A Day in the Life of a Restaurant Manager

Published
by
admin
on January 24, 2011
in Culinary Career
. 2 Comments

Restaurant ManagerOne of the best culinary careers for those who enjoy cooking as well as the organization and supervisory skills that come with running a restaurant is that of restaurant manager. Like an Executive Chef or restaurant owner, the restaurant manager is the professional who coordinates employees and food service to ensure that every customer walks away satisfied. However, unlike a chef (whose primary focus is the food) or an owner (who carries all the risks and rewards of ownership), the restaurant manager is a paid employee who gets to work in a fast-paced, exciting field while also enjoying a stable career.

What Does a Restaurant Manager Do?

As a restaurant manager, you are typically the first one in the door in the morning and the last one to leave at the end of the day. Although you might spend part of the day on the line in the kitchen, helping to put out food and ensure that the plating is perfect, you’ll also spend quite a bit of time in the front of the house and in an office, running through paperwork and communications.

In terms of running the kitchen, a restaurant manager is responsible for:

  • Ordering food and supplies
  • Organizing and rotating stock
  • Overseeing food deliveries
  • Helping create a menu
  • Occasionally helping with food preparation or service

As supervisor and the highest authority in the day-to-day running of the restaurant, the restaurant manager is also responsible for anywhere from 2 to 200 employees. This includes:

  • Employee and chef recruitment
  • Hiring and firing staff members
  • Employee scheduling
  • Employee training and motivation
  • Regularly evaluating employees

Restaurant managers also focus on the business side of running a successful restaurant. This is often done in conjunction with the owner to streamline the way the restaurant is run. Tasks include:

  • Marketing some aspects of the business
  • Preparing payroll and taxes
  • Paying suppliers
  • Branding and advertising
  • Expanding the business

Depending on where you work and the relationship between the owner, manager, and Executive Chef, your daily tasks can focus on any of the items listed above. This means you have to not only have culinary training, but a strong background in business, as well. That’s why so many aspiring restaurant managers seek a degree in hospitality management.

Offering everything from two-year Associate degrees and four-year Bachelor degrees all the way up to Master’s degrees in the field, hospitality schools provide training that straddles the line between business and food. Many graduates of these programs go on to work in restaurants and hotels, providing a variety of services and moving up the professional ranks to someday begin managing larger chains or even working in corporate restaurant offices.

Related Topics:

Who’s Who in a Professional Kitchen

Culinary Career Choices

Find a Culinary School or Hospitality Management School

How to Tell Your Parents You Want to Go to Culinary School

Published
by
admin
on September 29, 2009
in Culinary Schools
. 3 Comments

Tell Your Parents You Want To Go To Culinary SchoolDeciding which culinary school you want to attend is a step in the right direction for your culinary career. From the options in Le Cordon Bleu schools, community college programs, local vocational centers, and even the prestigious Institute of Culinary Education, simply finding and being accepted into a program is a pretty big deal. However, there is one step that many students fail to consider when choosing a culinary program: telling your parents where you’re going and how much it’s going to cost.

Overall, culinary schools have a pretty negative reputation for being expensive and too focused. After all, if you attend a traditional four-year college, you explore more than just one field of study, and you  end up with a Bachelor’s degree to help you land a job.

After culinary school, there’s pretty much one thing you can do with your degree or certificate: go to work in a kitchen. This is just the sort of thing that makes parents nervous, since it limits your options and might negate those two to four years of hard work.

However, there are benefits to culinary school that even parents can support. You simply have to angle them correctly.

“I’m doing more than getting an education; I’m learning a skill.” General education courses teach a lot of the same things you learn in high school: math, English, science, and the like. When you attend culinary school, you’re going beyond simple learning to include real vocational-centered training.

“The restaurant industry is one of the fastest-growing in the United States.” Jobs in the restaurant industry are expected to increase at a higher-than-average national rate. This means that more opportunities are arising daily, and there is plenty of room for advancement.

“I won’t be spending forever at school.” One of the benefits of culinary school is that you can complete your training in as little as nine months. This means that you’ll be on your way to a job before other students have even finished their second semester.

“Most of the schools take the same kind of financial aid taken at four-year universities.” If you look for a program that falls under the FAFSA program, you may be eligible for the same loans, grants, and work-study opportunities that traditional college students get.

Remember, only you can really decide the path of your future. If you feel that culinary school is right for you, there are few careers that offer the same kind of job satisfaction as the food and restaurant industry. You may have to work harder, but in the end, you’ll be that much more satisfied with your career – and your life.