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Career Description

Plan, direct, or coordinate activities of an organization or department that serves food and beverages.

What Job Titles Food Service Managers Might Have

• Food and Beverage Manager
• Food Service Director
• Food Service Manager
• Restaurant Manager

What Food Service Managers Do

• Keep records required by government agencies regarding sanitation or food subsidies.
• Investigate and resolve complaints regarding food quality, service, or accommodations.
• Maintain food and equipment inventories, and keep inventory records.
• Monitor food preparation methods, portion sizes, and garnishing and presentation of food to ensure that food is prepared and presented in an acceptable manner.
• Schedule and receive food and beverage deliveries, checking delivery contents to verify product quality and quantity.
• Coordinate assignments of cooking personnel to ensure economical use of food and timely preparation.
• Monitor compliance with health and fire regulations regarding food preparation and serving, and building maintenance in lodging and dining facilities.
• Count money and make bank deposits.
• Establish standards for personnel performance and customer service.
• Perform some food preparation or service tasks, such as cooking, clearing tables, and serving food and drinks when necessary.
• Greet guests, escort them to their seats, and present them with menus and wine lists.
• Test cooked food by tasting and smelling it to ensure palatability and flavor conformity.
• Schedule staff hours and assign duties.
• Arrange for equipment maintenance and repairs, and coordinate a variety of services, such as waste removal and pest control.
• Review menus and analyze recipes to determine labor and overhead costs, and assign prices to menu items.
• Organize and direct worker training programs, resolve personnel problems, hire new staff, and evaluate employee performance in dining and lodging facilities.
• Review work procedures and operational problems to determine ways to improve service, performance, or safety.
• Assess staffing needs and recruit staff, using methods such as newspaper advertisements or attendance at job fairs.
• Order and purchase equipment and supplies.
• Record the number, type, and cost of items sold to determine which items may be unpopular or less profitable.
• Monitor employee and patron activities to ensure liquor regulations are obeyed.
• Monitor budgets and payroll records, and review financial transactions to ensure that expenditures are authorized and budgeted.
• Estimate food, liquor, wine, and other beverage consumption to anticipate amounts to be purchased or requisitioned.
• Schedule use of facilities or catering services for events such as banquets or receptions, and negotiate details of arrangements with clients.
• Take dining reservations.
• Plan menus and food utilization, based on anticipated number of guests, nutritional value, palatability, popularity, and costs.
• Establish and enforce nutritional standards for dining establishments, based on accepted industry standards.
• Create specialty dishes and develop recipes to be used in dining facilities.

What Food Service Managers Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Food Service Managers Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Conventional - Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Social - Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

What Food Service Managers Need to Learn

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
• Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
• Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
• Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
• Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.