Cooperation with other department:
The coordination of the kitchen with the other departments in the or with people outside the hotel is utmost importance to enable hassle free operations. The people outside the hotel, who directly or indirectly influence the business are called ‘external customers’ and the departments inside the hotel are referred to as ‘internal customers’.
External customers:
Executive chef or executive sous chef are responsible for dealing with the external customers. Chefs have to keep a good liaison with guests, suppliers, media, government officials and local food authority.
Guests:
A person staying at a hotel or guest house.The first and foremost external customer is the guest who pays money for hospitality services provided to him/her. There are no particular formats between the guests and the kitchen staff, a guest simply places his/her order verbally to the F&B person who writes down the order and immediately confirms it with the guest.
Suppliers:
Suppliers are the people who supply chefs with ingredients they process and cook for serving to the guests. It is crucial for the chefs to maintain a good rapport with the suppliers so that quality ingredients are supplied to the hotel and in case of any exigencies, the supplies can be asked for, at any time of the day.
Media:
Chefs interact with media in liaison with the sales and marketing department team. Whenever a new menu is launched or a popup/cheftables/chefevent/food festival/promotion is being planned, it becomes important to advertise in the papers and magazines, to attract guests to the hotel.
Local food authority:
Local authority food safety teams are responsible for food businesses in the area. Local food authority or health inspectors regularly visit hotel or restaurant premises for audits and inspections to make sure the food served is safe and wholesome.
Government officials:
Many diplomats and important political persons visit the country and are put up in hotels. The chef has to closely coordinate with certain appointed local government officials regarding the food of such delegates and also the sampling of food is done before it is consumed by the concerned person. Sometimes chefs also accompany the president or prime minister during their foreign visits.
Internal customers:
These are most important people that chefs have to deal with on a daily basis and their existence without these people is almost negligible. the kitchen prepares food for the entire staff in the cafeteria. Healthy and nutritious food is a great motivating factor for all employees of the hotel.
Housekeeping department:
The kitchen requires clean uniforms and dusters on a daily basis from the housekeeping department. Pest control and fumigation is done in the kitchen by housekeeping. Special uniforms for special functions are asked to the housekeeping department. Festive decorations, flower arrangements, etc., if required is taken care by housekeeping department.
Front office department:
Front office department communicates the daily arrival list to the kitchen, which helps the chefs estimate their production so that wastage can be minimized. This list also contains history of guests and chefs come to know if there was any problem with food or service during the guests previous stay, and hence could make it up this time by exceeding his/her expectation. VIP’s list is circulated to kitchen for any special requests and for room amenities to be placed in room. Sometimes welcome drinks are prepared by the kitchen.
Food and beverage service department:
The service department is mainly responsible and takes care of the sale of food by taking orders and serving. Service department plays a role of bridge between a guest and kitchen staff for fulfilling special needs of guest and providing feedback to the kitchen. wines and liquors are required from F&B department on daily basis for cooking certain dishes.
Stewarding Department:
Purchase and stores department:
It procures raw materials at the best possible prices without compromising quality. Chefs help the purchase department create the standard purchase specifications for commodities.
Finance department:
Costing of the recipe is done by finance department which helps management deciding the price of the dish. it helps a chef keep a check on his/her expenses by giving a periodic report mentioning his/her profits and losses. it helps the kitchen procure goods and equipment required for cooking and formalize the budgets for capital and operating equipments.
Sales and marketing department:
it helps the chefs promote new menus and festivals. It also promotes the chefs so as to increase the sales of their product. sales people are responsible for entertaining VIP’s.
Engineering department:
It does preventive and breakdown maintenance of all machinery in the premises. it helps install new machinery and equipment and gives training to the staff on its usage and precautions. Maintenance schedule are made and followed up by chefs.
Human resources and training department:
It helps chefs find skilled workers and facilitate recruitment by helping conduct interviews and trade tests. Appraisals and career developing of kitchen people is liaised with HRD. Joining formalities of the new staff, induction, orientation, locker facilities etc. are dealt by the HRD.
Security department :
‘Gate pass ‘ is maintained by the security to keep a check over the items taken out of the hotel. In case of fire security is the department which should informed immediately. Keys of the departments are kept with security department
Thank you chef pradip for support.
