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the service staff may have repeated them one hundred
times that evening, employees should be taught to explain
every item to each guest.
The manager must train staff to explain in detail the
chef s creation of the evening. When it is time to offer the
guest the choice of salad dressings or vegetables, explain
what they are. Rather than let the staff say,  And what
would you like on your salad? encourage them to say
something like:  A salad is included in the meal. Our
choice of dressings are: blue cheese; Russian; Italian; and
our house dressing, which is a sweet and sour dressing
made with mustard and honey. The same should be true
for vegetables, potatoes, and chef creations, especially if
the item is new or one that is not normally served in the
area where your restaurant is located. Included in the
explanation can be the ingredients, how it is prepared, and
the price.
Training to Serve the Meal 179
Finally, the order should be repeated back to the
guest. By doing this, your service staff will avoid any
misunderstandings of guest orders. However, the method
used should not be annoying to the guests. For instance,
a service person who echoes every single item that the
guest orders will be annoying. It is much better to wait
until the complete order is taken and then repeat the main
course back to the guest.
The job of the service staff should not just be to serve
the food, but to be the human link between the kitchen
and the guest. This is why the importance of verbal
communication between the service staff and the guest
must be stressed. It gives the restaurant a personality.
Service Person Should Stand
There are two opinions on where the service persons
should be standing when they take the guests order. Both
agree that order taking should follow the proper guidelines
of service: children first, then women, then men. There is
an exception, when one person is the host of the party
and he or she is ordering for the entire table.
The first method states that the service person should
stand to the left of the guest and take the order, then move
to the next person, following the proper guidelines of
service, and take the order. The problem with this method
is that if the service person takes the order by following
proper guidelines, it may be necessary to skip over one
male guest to take the next female s order. The service
person will then have to return to the man, and move
back and forth, creating much unnecessary confusion.
The second method is to have the service person
stand in one spot and take all the guests orders from that
spot, following the proper guidelines of service. This works
well at a table with two to four guests. However, for more
than four guests, especially with rectangular-shaped tables,
180 Banquet Management and Room Division
the service person may have to move to different spots in
order to hear the order.
Whichever method is used, the management should
set guidelines for their own restaurant, keeping in mind
that guests should be served smoothly and efficiently.
How to write the Guest Orders
Once the staff know where the home base is, the next
thing the manager must teach them is how to write the
guest orders. The system must be explained simply enough
so that any employee who picks up the food order can
deliver it to the guests without having to ask who gets
what. Each person should be provided with some sort of
form with which to take orders. The service person must
be organized; but it is up to the manager to devise this
policy in such a way that all employees will know who
gets what item.
Some restaurants use a system that has the guest
check remain at the table, in a slot provided in each table.
The duplicate check (dupe) is brought into the kitchen to
order the food. The guest check can have the system of
 who gets what directly written on the check. The service
staff will write the check in the following manner: The
seat immediately to the left of the slot is the number 1
seat. Going in a clockwise direction, the seats are
numbered consecutively, 2, 3, 4. The management arranges
the tables so that the slots are always in the same position
relative to the home base.
These are two methods for writing guest orders and
determining who gets what order. There are other
methods, but they all have one thing in common: They
are set up in an organized manner than can be easily
learned. The key is to have the manager decide on one
system and have all of the staff use the same system.
Training to Serve the Meal 181
Code Order System
Another system for determining who gets what is the code
order. This system is not recommended, because too much
confusion and embarrassment can result. The code order
system was used in the past when a single service person
was responsible for the station. The service person would
write next to the order a code to identify the guest. The
code would represent some distinguishing feature that
made one guest stand out from the other, such as blue tie
or red hair. This system can create problems because not
all the service staff would understand the system. It also
could be embarrassing if the service person uses a code
order that was derogatory toward the guestsuch as fat
person, bald, or grey hair.
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