Room Service:

It implies serving of food and beverage in guest rooms of hotels. Small orders are served in trays. Major means are taken to the room on trolleys. The guest places his order with the room service order taker. The waiter receives the order and transmits the same to the kitchen. In the meanwhile he prepares his tray or trolley. He then goes to the cashier to have a cheque prepared to take along with the food order for the guests’ signature or payment. Usually clearance of soiled dishes from the room is done after half an hour or an hour. However, the guest can telephone Room Service for the clearance as and when he has finished with the meal. There are two types of Room Service:

Centralized:

Here al the food orders are processed from the main kitchen and sent to the rooms by a common team of waiters.

Decentralized:

Each floor or a set of floor may have separate pantries to service them. Orders are taken at a central point by order-takers who in turn convey the order to the respective pantry.

Mobile Pantries:

Some hotels have pantries installed in service elevators. A central point that conveys it to the mobile pantry receives orders. The pantry has to just switch on the floor and give instant service. For the sake of information, in countries, which have a shortage of manpower, large hotels install mechanized dispensing units in rooms. The guest inserts the necessary value of coins into the machine, which will eject pre-prepared food and beverages for guest consumption.

§  BREAKFAST SERVICE

Breakfast means ‘breaking the fast’ and is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast service is very important for the waiter to create a favourable impression on the guest and ensure he comes back to the restaurant for all his other meals. Therefore, the service should be quick; the food should be of good quality and as ordered by the guest. Defined as the first meal of the day and literally means, breaking the fast of the night.  It was during the 15th century that certain foods were created and served only at breakfast and this tradition continues even today.  Today the foods eaten at home for breakfast have a lot to do with convenience, as people do not have the time to make and eat a leisurely breakfast.  Bread-like items are popular breakfast foods during the workweek: bagels, muffins, scones, cereal or muësli, with a cup of tea or coffee.  Weekends are when the so-called “big breakfast” or “English breakfast” is served where eggs take center stage as well as bacon, sausages, tomatoes, toast, jams and preserves.

Some breakfast foods and their countries of origin are:

North America – quick breads, especially muffins.

France – croissant

Scandinavia – Danish pastries

Germany – kugelhopf (a rich yeast-leavened cake, similar to brioche, containing raisins and lemon peel with almonds on top.)

Scotland and Ireland – baps (a soft roll that contains butter or some other type of fat to produce a tender baked good.)

England – crumpet (a perforated pancake-type baked good made with yeast and cooked on a griddle in a ring mold.)

Spain – churros (A deep-fried sweet dough, much like a doughnut, that is coated with confectioners’ sugar or a cinnamon/sugar mixture when still hot.)

Mis –en-place for breakfast service

The evening before, a clean tablecloth is laid on the table, and then the cover is set. A full breakfast cover will require side plates, side knife salt pepper, mustard, cruet set, fish-knife, fish fork, large knife and large fork, a dessert spoon, arranged in the usual way. Ashtray and butter dish are also placed for breakfast. Next morning the table settings are completed with breakfast cups and saucer with teaspoon and table napkins. A bowl of grain sugar and another with sugar cubes or sugar milk, a jug of cream is also kept on the table. Arrangement is made for service of preserves, butter dish and butter knife. The sideboard should be ready with service accessories, extra napkins, water jug, tumblers, crockery and a number of proprietary sauces.

The commis will assemble all the things on the sideboard just before the service. Unnecessary items should never be kept on the table.

Breakfast service in restaurants

The guests are received in the usual way. The rules for serving breakfast are the same as any other meal. In first class restaurants or hotels, silver service is done but now-a-days most hotels provide plate service to expedite the service. Coffee, toasts, rolls, brioche and croissant are placed on the table at the same time as porridge or cereals unless the guest orders otherwise.

At breakfast time toasts are always served in toast racks, and never stacked in a pile. Which makes it soggy? Make sure that the toasts and tea is freshly made and coffee and hot milk really hot. After the main dish, the waiter moves the side plate in front of the guest and serves the toast rack and preserves nearer to the guest.

Breakfast service in rooms

This is done by the floor waiter (Chef d’etage) of the room service department. Trolleys or trays are used for serving breakfast in the guest rooms. Tray is used for one and trolleys for more than one room. They are laid with chine and cutlery the previous night in the floor pantry. At the last minute, the waiter places the hot food and beverage on the tray or trolley and takes sit to the guest room at the requested time.

Breakfast in the rooms are usually ordered the previous night or given as a standing order or through doorknob breakfast order cards.

After knocking and waiting to be admitted, the tray is placed on a special table on the bed if required by the guest. The trolley is wheeled into the room, placed in the center or by the window or bed as requested.

Before leaving the room, the waiter will show all the dishes to the guest so that changes can be made immediately, if required. The bill is also presented to the guest before the waiter leaves the room.

BASIC METHODS OF FOOD & BEVERAGE SERVICES

There are some basic principles in food and beverage service that a waiter must know:

1. When the waiter at the table serves food from a platter onto a guest plate, the service is done from the left.
2. When food is pre-plated the service to the guest is usually done from the right, though modern convention permits service from the left also.
3. All beverages are served from the right.
4. Soups are served from the right unless it is poured by a waiter from a large tureen into a soup cup in which case it is done from the left of the guest.
5. Ladies are always served first and the remaining guests clockwise. Soiled plates should always be cleared from the table from the right. Empty crockery and fresh cutlery are always served from the right. Never reach across a Customer. Hence, when a guest is present at the table, all items and equipment on the right of guest must be placed from the right and that on the left from the left.