Danielle Sheridan
Chapter 6 Summary
On average, we spend almost half of our food money on eating away from our homes. Restaurant originates from the French word meaning to restore, which is basically what a restaurant is set out to do; restoring our energies in good company of our friends and family. Classical cuisine is accredited to Mari-Antoine Carême and August Escoffier. Nouvelle (New) cuisine tends to be lighter and prepared simply with more technological equipment such as blenders. To be a good cook, one must realize that it is not a solo job, that it is a team effort to succeed. When choosing a location for an ideal restaurant, the lease of the space should be about 5-8% of the total sales. Unfortunately, since so many Americans tend to drive to restaurants, on top of the food waste restaurants have, this business is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the hospitality industry. There are many categories of restaurants: independent and chain restaurants, that could also be categorized into fine dining, quick service, ethnic and so on.
Chapter 7 Summary
A general restaurant would have 3 different managers that would be reported to: Dining Room and Bar Managers (2) which are in front of the house (guests will interact most with people that work in the front) and the back of the house which is led by the kitchen manager. Managers should have a strong knowledge in all area though to be successful. To forecast restaurant sales, 2 main components are needed: guest count (over a given period of time) and average guest check (Total sales divided by guest count). The cooking production line is the most important part in the restaurant business, needing restaurant forecasting to design a proper kitchen and storage space. Prep work is always done before the course options are open to guests. Even though sifting through garbage is not a fun or attractive task, the menial task is important to reduce trash waste and can help the restaurant’s budget.
Nicaury Espinal
HMGT 1101
Prof. Walker
11/2/17
Chapters 6&7 summary
The chapter starts off by talking about restaurants and where they first started. A restaurant is somewhere where families go to unwind and take a break of the food that they cook every day, which let’s be honest , all of us wish we can do at least every week. It goes on to explain where the word restaurant comes from, which its comes from a French word that basically means restore. It also tells us about how restaurants are a very rich industry and it employs millions of people all around theUS. It moves on by telling us what percentage of our money we spend on restaurants, which is a 48% of it, that’s basically half of the money we earn that goes to restaurants. The French cuisine is very popular in the US and for that we would have to thank Marie Antoine, he is credited for introducing French cuisine to us. After the French Revolution, many chefs had to come to the US because their bosses literally lost their heads. It then introduces the five mother sauces of any restaurant, which are Béchamel, Veloute, Espagnole, Tomatoes, and Hollandaise. It moves to tell us the good techniques necessary to be a good chef, which probably most of us know but just to be sure, they are cooking, of course, menu development, safety/sanitation, accounting, computer knowledge, food trends, and practice. If someone wants to open a restaurant, it’s not a very good idea for them to do it alone, because it can fall apart. But there also a such thing as a chain of restaurants, these usually serve the same food, and promote the same service throughout the entire US. Although, they may have a concept for their restaurants but that doesn’t mean that all of their employees follow that concept. Moving on to chapter 7, this chapter mostly focuses of the different parts of a restaurant like, the front of the house runned by the general manager, the kitchen manager also known as the chef, the bar manager, who most likely takes advantage of that job when he/she can, and the dining room manager. Everyone that works on the front of the house has to be able to take care all of the customers with a smile on their face. A good concept to have before opening a restaurant would be forecasting, you would have to know if your restaurant will do well as it keeps progressing, and probably if it’s worth to keep open once you have started. Managers have to make sure that all of the employees are doing their job and should also try to get more experience all around the restaurant because it can help them in the future. It moves on to tell us about food costing and controlling is something very important that should start all the way from the beginning of the entire process. A very cleaver process that many chefs use to keep their food from getting contaminated and spreading something within the restaurant is FIFO, meaning first in first out, which also means that the food that has been in the fridge for the longest had to be used before the new product.